Create Urgency: Although there are roughly four weeks between Cyber Monday and Christmas morning, websites will do the most business if they express a sense of urgency on their website. A clock counting down until the end of the Cyber Monday sale, or perhaps until Christmas, will remind shoppers that presents need to be purchased quickly before time runs out. Specify that Cyber Monday deals are a one time only special, and that prices can’t be guaranteed beyond that day, or the days during which the sales are running. This can motivate indecisive shoppers to commit to buying things that they might otherwise consider and then decide against.

Encourage the Holiday Spirit: Nothing can motivate shoppers to buy products online like remembering the excitement of the holidays. Through the use of holiday phrases, sounds, music and festive web design, remind anyone who views your page of the impending holiday season. Positive Christmas memories will be associated with your products, and many shoppers will want to share that joy with friends and family who they can shop for online.

Show Reduced Prices: Remember that people head online to get their shopping done on Cyber Monday because they expect there to be sales and reduced prices. This is a wonderful advantage for online businesses, because before the page has even been opened shoppers are excited and ready to see low prices. Capitalize on this by showing the reduced prices clearly, and offering plenty of sales and deals. Include the original prices alongside the new reduced rates to it is clear that the website is indeed celebrating Cyber Monday and offering sale items. Organize the most reduced products to appear at the top of the page or on the main opening page, so that the first impression is that of a sale.

Use Social Media: In the weeks leading up to Cyber Monday, locate as many followers as possible on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. Then, during your holiday Cyber Monday sales, you can post links and specials to your profiles. These deals will then be seen by those interested in your products, and can be reached in a single click. This is perhaps one of the best ways to achieve new sales, as well as remind repeat customers of any bargains they might not have noticed previously.

To capitalize on Cyber Monday, one of the biggest online shopping days of the year, be sure to encourage the holiday spirit, show your reduced prices, create a sense of urgency and utilize social media to bring in new customers.

November 28, 2011

Most of us are well aware of the tactics that celebrities use to endorse movies or albums. Taking into consideration an artist like Kanye West, using arrogance as a way to attract attention, and actors like Lindsay Lohan, maintaining an extended fifteen minutes of fame by living a life of frivolity, not to mention the numerous objectionable publicity stunts used to promote the movie Bruno.

The most recent, and one of the most ridiculous publicity stunts I’ve heard, is the case of six-year-old Falcon Heene, also known as Balloon Boy. Balloon Boy was definitely a frightening story. Imagine a six-year-old stuck in a helium balloon 10,000 feet in the air. Viewers were outraged to find out that the whole thing was a publicity stunt, although I’m sure there was a sigh of relief in his safety.

A friend of mine called me cynical during the hours that this story began to gain momentum. Why? Because I said something along the lines of “I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing was a publicity stunt,” albeit, this may seem very cynical, but my reasoning came from rumors that the mother was on the TV Show “Wife Swap.”

Now, I’m not saying it isn’t possible for a mother on TV to have her son missing, but I do find it unlikely that he would end up floating in a helium balloon across Colorado, causing a media frenzy. It just seemed too setup for me, and fortunately, being that the child was in no real danger; it was just a big setup!

Drastic tactics like these can really have a negative impact on a company when the truth is revealed, which in the 21^st century it more than likely will. The target audience is insulted by the corporation because they have basically minimized the intelligence of their target audience, suggesting that people will believe just about anything said to them.

The station that this scheme was formed for has been under wraps, so most of the anger is towards the family itself, who may have been trying to push a new show, called Richard Heene: Science Detective.

According to TIME, the parents met in acting school, unfortunately for them, their son is not Macaulay Culkin, but fortunate for the angry viewers and media, justice is almost ready to be served to the Heene family.

One of the first things I learned as a public relations student was that the truth is always necessary. It is never a good idea to lie to your audience. If you cannot pitch something with the truth, than it is more than likely not a good thing to pitch and you will never sell anything by insulting your consumers.

So, what’s the moral of this story? The truth shall set you free, or at least give you more credibility.

October 22, 2009

I’m thrilled that Conan O’Brien is the new Tonight Show host. He really induces the much needed LOL’s after a long day. Last night as I faithfully tuned in to NBC to catch his show, I noticed for the second night in a row that Bing is one of the show’s sponsors running at least one commercial during each commercial break. As I began to write that observation down in my notepad, the show comes back on and Conan introduces a segment called “Googling with the Stars”. This blew me away; this is a huge and significant product placement advertisement for Google.

He started the segment by enthusiastically asking “Who uses Google? Everyone uses Google right?” Andy Richter said, “I’m using it now!”, and then the audience cheered. He kept repeating “Everyone uses Google.” That is the moment that Bing should feel pretty unsettled about. Google is not going anywhere. This is a huge plug for the search engine giant. What also made this promotion a success is that the segment was really hilarious! The point is to reveal what stars have been Googling and this gives Conan a chance to crack some jokes at the celebrity’s expense.

One of my favorites was Ryan Seacrest who supposedly Googled “football + beer + hunting + ultimate fighting championship + monster trucks + daniel craig pantsless + I mean, football.” This was an obvious jab to the multitasking hosts’ rumored sexual preference. There were also political figures like ousted Governor Mark Sanford, Bill Clinton, and for a second time in one week, Sarah Palin. According to the Tonight Show, the former Alaska governor Googled  “petshop + junea, alaska + speech-writing ape.” Another great one was celebrity father of 8 John Gosselin, from the reality show, John and Kate Plus 8. The anticipation was great, in light of his recent and very public divorce the audience exploded in pity as if they could almost predict what was going to be said about his recent misfortunes; he Googled meeting “singles + females + infertile.”

For Google, this was a home run as far as marketing is concerned. The Tonight Show currently has excellent ratings and has really taken off since Conan stepped in. During the segment, not only did Conan sound very enthusiastic about Google but Google’s home page was visible for long periods of time as they illustrated what the stars wrote. I am very surprised that the Tonight Show included this in their lineup even though Bing is one of their sponsors. Do you think it matters to Bing? Is there a chance that Bing might consider pulling their sponsorship? This just illustrates that Google has major pop culture influence and that it is still THE name in the search engine industry. Bing has a huge mountain to climb.  Google is the verb of choice for searching … will people ever be “binging?”

September 2, 2009

Last Friday Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie Bruno came out and topped box offices with a whopping $30.4 Million, only to see diminishing returns for the remainder of the weekend.  It is unusual that a movie begins to drop just the day after, but in Bruno’s case it did.  The newest installment of the Harry Potter series opened this past Wednesday with an unheard of $104 million worldwide, with more people expected to see it this coming weekend.  Despite Bruno not having great success after its opening day compared to Harry Potter’s unrivaled success, both of these movies have one glaring commonality; both of these film’s online reviews were negative.

From social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, to movie review sites like Yahoo movies and moviefone.com, the reviews for these films were nothing to be proud of.  I personally have not seen Bruno yet, but I was dragged to see Harry Potter at midnight this past Wednesday, and it was probably the worst of all Potter films that I have seen.  I am not a reader of the novels, so I can say unbiased, it wasn’t a great movie.  So we ask ourselves, why one movie continued to do well even though they both had bad reviews.  The answer: Branding.

Branding is one of the most important aspects of marketing.  If your product is branded well, introduces itself successfully, and is made a staple within popular culture (such as the Harry Potter series) then a formula for future success has been established.  Also, keep in mind the demographic for both of these films.  The demographic for Bruno are the people who enjoyed Borat, and the people who bought the hype.  Compare this to the loyal fans (both children and adults) who will watch the movie regardless of negative reviews.

Sacha Baron Cohen didn’t do a great job at branding himself as a transcendent figure in popular culture.  Many people don’t even know him by name; only by the guy did who Borat.  For example, comedians such as Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrel to name a few have branded themselves adequately.  We know their names, the posters and ads for all of their movies have their names in big bold letters, so we associate them with funny movies, which at the least will make us laugh.  With Sacha Baron Cohen, “not so much… (Borat accent).”  It is true that Sacha Baron Cohen has a small following of loyal fans that have enjoyed him since his start with the Ali G Show (like myself), but much of him is surrounded by mystery.  It may be due to the fact that he is not from the United States, but that has been overcome before (Monty Python); but in my opinion he didn’t brand himself the way that other successful talents in his field have.  He had the perfect opportunity with Borat; it was a gigantic hit worldwide, if we would have attached his name to it a bit more, and made himself more of a global icon/phenomenon than I think despite bad reviews, Bruno’s numbers would still be climbing.

Now, more than ever, movies are capitalizing on the effects of branding.  Think of all of the new movies coming out that are based on old comic books or children’s cartoons.  Transformers, Wolverine, Spiderman, and GI Joe just to name a few are all expecting to, or have already earned high revenue at the box office.

The overall marketing theme here is branding.  Yes, you can have a great product, and it might do well initially, but without a great branding technique you may not be ensuring yourself future success.  So before you unveil your next great product/service, make sure to brand it properly, or the 15 minutes of fame that we all desire might be all that you get.

February 18, 2010

Let’s keep this simple. Bad SEO isn’t SEO at all. Bad SEO is an imposter that simply doesn’t deal with the realities of SEO. Bad SEO preys upon the ignorance (lack of awareness) of those who seek online success looking for help. Some call this Black Hat SEO or Grey Hat SEO actually trying to make a distinction between some bad practice and others. Then there is White Hat SEO, a euphemism that simply means to us, the way it is supposed to be in the first place.

So, without any further ado, see this simple listing that surely is a description of Excellent SEO:

1. Telling our prospective new clients what they need to know and not necessarily what they may want to hear:
   1. SEO takes time; it can take months, sometimes as much as 6-12 months to achieve significant, solid and stable rankings.
   2. SEO is expensive. Anyone telling you otherwise cannot be providing Good SEO … it’s just not possible unless they have no profit motive or are providing pro bono services.
   3. SEO does not end; it is not a finite service. It you stop, you will drop in the rankings. We can prove it with a few clients that had to stop for internal reasons and they have rehired us now that the costs of stopping have become clear.
2. Providing a defined Execution Process and Schedule so the client understands what is being done and when it will be done.
3. A strict adherence to Google Webmaster Guidelines.
4. Strong Initial Keyword and Competitive Research
5. Implementation of onsite optimization techniques to form the foundation of all new SEO elements going forward.
6. Strong Content Management for onsite implementation and offsite syndication.
7. Steady and continuous stream of new unique content as fuel for the content management system.
8. Sophisticated Statistical Analysis – NO SEO knows ahead of time exactly how every page and every strategy will perform in every single case. However
   stat analysis provides the guidance to make the necessary adjustments in real time to optimize performance.
9. Syndication Strategy – where to syndicate for different forms of content; text, articles, press releases, videos, demos, podcasts, etc.
10. Social Media Strategy – where and how to generate live human interaction with quality interactive content.

I cannot reiterate the fact enough that Great SEO is about great planning, great execution … AND … it can never end because your competition never ends. Always remember that those on page 1 are not there by accident and not there because they just wrote a check (Paid Search Listings excluded). They are there because they are doing many of the right things. The challenge is to defeat them, outpoint them by competing successfully online. That is what SEO is all about and that is what Optimum7 is all about. We eat our own cooking too! Just go to Google and type in Internet Marketing Services and you will find us high on the first page and then look at how many tens of millions of competing pages there are just for this one term. This is not an accident. It was earned by strict adherence to great SEO practices as outlined here. These results are replicated many times through tens of thousands of keywords for our clients and ourselves.

As always feel free to contact us anytime for help and advice.

May 5, 2009

It would be a gross understatement to say that Kawasaki likes Twitter.  He loves it, as he puts it, as much as Macintosh and he loves Macintosh, having spent much of his career there developing and maintaining the cult-like following of the Mac brand.

His presentation was quite useful.  Kawasaki feels that Twitter is the biggest thing since sliced bread or more specifically, TV.  In a nutshell, his advice for Twitter is to “get involved.”  Start following people and always follow those that follow you.  He says it’s a numbers game and about achieving critical mass.  As importantly, you must be a giver … a tweeter … of useful content; content that is useful enough to be retweeted over and over again.  Internet Marketing is always ultimately about content and Kawasaki says nothing to dispel that principal.

For most, including Kawasaki, the marketing value of Twitter is not initially obvious.  Twitter asks a very basic question … What are you doing now?  This is what millions are doing 24/7 using a microblogging interface that restricts the tweeter to 140 characters.  So, there are a great many tweets about relatively nothing i.e. “I am going to wash my car now.”  Who cares?

However, if that is all Twitter means to an individual then it will remain trivial and quite meaningless for that individual.  Kawasaki discussed how the interaction with larger and larger group of followers presents tremendous business opportunities.  Twitter is searchable and very powerfully at that.  So, followers of similar interests including buying and selling interests can find each other.  It is pure and simple, social networking at its essence … and we are barely in the first inning as few are just beginning to recognize the power and opportunities of Twitter and the social media in general.  For now, my take is that you have to be there.

Guy Kawaski spent a large portion of his time itemizing and reviewing the huge number of tools for leveraging what is available on Twitter.  These tools allow you to analyze, track, monitor and filter the important metrics you are interested in and specifically the tweets that deserve your time and attention.

The keynote was well worthwhile as Kawasaki provided a good deal of insight and information about Twitter and the many tools to make it work from an Internet Marketing perspective.  His obvious free spirit style and candor was great.

Tell us what you think by commenting right here.

Arthur Cooper
Follow Arthur on Twitter
http://www.linkedin.com/in/optimum7arthurcooper

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

March 29, 2009

This is the first in a series of posts that I will be making to offer my reflections on The SES (Search Engine Strategies) Conference in New York last week. The 3 day agenda included 5 tracks of presentations and discussions as follows:

• Search & the Fundamentals
• Search & the Fear Economy
• Search & the C-Level Executive
• Search & Measurement
• Search & the Future

The conference was well attended by many corporate advertisers as well Search Engine Marketing Companies. Although I have been in the industry since 2005, this was my first attendance at an SES conference.

I found several of the presentations to be very worthwhile on a number of levels and I will be sharing them on future posts. While I could only attend one presentation at a time, all of the presentations will be posted for registered attendees and I will be viewing those in the days to come. I hope to share with our readers certain relevant insights and information along the way.

One thing I can say for certain. I was really kind of shocked regarding the continuing huge emphasis on Google Adwords and Paid Search. By itself, this didn’t really bother me; however, the combined lack of emphasis on organic search, relatively speaking, made we wonder if the industry is in some form of denial.

Here are the facts as presented even here at SES New York. Paid Search is commanding 88% of the online marketing dollar while paid search usage represents only 10-15% of the market. In other words, 85-90% of searches result in an organic click and NOT a paid click, yet 88% of the dollars are chasing the paid clicks.

Those of you familiar with Optimum7 and the wealth of content on our site and on our blog can probably understand where I am going.

It appears the industry, as a whole, continues to focus on the least productive piece of search marketing (PPC or Paid Search) while not grappling with the hard work and realities involved in Organic Search Engine Marketing. It appears that, as a group, that don’t want to deal with it. Here are the reasons:

1. It involves a massive commitment to content.

2. It involves patience as the results are almost never immediate.

3. It involves hard work to make the website work in the eyes of Google for ranking purposes.

4. It’s a hard sale to prospective clients because results are neither immediate nor guaranteed AND involve significant commitments beyond the financial ones.

5. It involves strong skills and processes that go well beyond the web page.

It just comes down to a restatement of what is obvious. Everyone says they want to be on the first page of Google, but very few are actually willing to do those things, make those commitments to actually achieve first place organic rankings.

So, this energizes me more than ever. We are so focused on getting strong visibility and bottom line results for our clients that the hard work isn’t hard at all because it’s a labor of love. Nothing excites us more when we achieve page 1 results for clients and concurrently see the traffic graph move from the lower to left to the upper right.

Bookmark or follow me on Twitter or Facebook or just RSS this blog so you know when you can view the next post of my impressions in this series on the SES New York Conference.

Don’t forget … your comments are always welcome.

Arthur Cooper
http://twitter.com/arthurcooper
http://www.linkedin.com/in/optimum7arthurcooper

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

July 1, 2009

Here is the number of keywords used to find some of our clients just last month on Google:

1.    1,647

2.    889

3.    2,123

4.    1,119

5.    1,789

I assure you that none of these clients could have imagined that these volumes of unique keywords were even being searched to find relevant information as it pertains to their website.

Also, many conversions come from a keyword that has only been used once or twice for last month.  This is a common experience, however.  There are many factors involved.  However, if you don’t do the research on keywords, understand the derivatives, the competition, the search volume or popularity, etc, you have a very slim foundation for any type of online marketing, whether it be with Google, YouTube, Linked-In, Twitter, Face-Book or ZoomInfo.

All relevant online activities begin and end with keywords … this is how things are found online.
Further, measuring or tracking the performance of keywords and continually researching new trends in keywords is an ongoing process critical to consistent, long term online success.  Keyword research provides the first important blueprint to guide your onsite and offsite content focus.  Knowing which terms are being searched, and in what volume, gives you a huge advantage … you actually know where to go and what to focus on.  Similarly, knowing which keywords are converting provides you additional high value information; you can leverage your content based on this information.  You can further focus your keyword research to find similar terms that are more likely to succeed.

There are many tools available to help you do quality research online for your keywords.  Of course, contact us and we will be happy to help.

Arthur Cooper

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

February 19, 2009

But, behind the scenes, here is how it will benefit you:

1.    When you publish your posts Google will index it and this simply increases the number of indexed pages.  This, in and of itself, creates some activity to give the Google Spiders reason to come back to your site for more.

2.    The more pages you index the more Google will scan your site and index even more content.

3.    This adds to the relevancy quotient or the website strength.

4.    Increasing Google site visits and increasing relevancy will lead to higher search rankings for the content located throughout your website.

If you have a business website, you are not on the internet at all for all practical purposes UNLESS you can be found easily on Google.  Being found easily means top 3 page ranks for highly targeted and relevant keywords.  Remember, 68% of online searchers do not go past the first page and 98% don’t go past the 3rd page.  Also 70% mentally block out the Sponsored Listings.  So, by now, you must realize that the sweet spot is page 1 for the organic listings and as high up as you can get.  Content is the life blood of website visibility; it must be consistent, ongoing, fresh and unique to your website.  Blogging is a routine activity and a powerful avenue to add content regularly and keep your website on the upswing towards your goal of top rankings.

Blogging is just one content delivery system.  There are countless additional ways to use content to make your website deliver for your bottom line results.  Setting up the blog and structuring it properly is important too; contact us to get assistance.

Arthur Cooper

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

February 19, 2009

Every year a big deal is always made about commercials that air during the Super Bowl.  This year’s average price for an ad spot is $3 million.  Obviously not very many of us can afford a television ad, let alone one on Super Bowl Sunday, but this doesn’t mean that we still cannot benefit from it.  If we watch the big game closely, analyze the marketing techniques surrounding it, and come up with a process to take advantage of the theme then some big gains and exposure can arise.

The usual companies that advertise on Super Bowl Sunday are soda, beer, cars, and the off-topic advertisers such as insurance for example.  But usually the way their commercials are set up is to surprise the viewer, bring up a sense of nostalgia, and/or make them laugh.  Why are the best commercials always saved for the Super Bowl?  Because you aren’t going to waste $3 million dollars on a poorly produced ad, you are going to make sure that every person who saw your commercial walked away from the game with an image, memory, or joke in their mind that will make them at least contemplate about buying their stuff.

How can we take advantage of this as SEM and SEO specialists?  Well for one, we can try to come up with relevant keywords that can also be associated with your company.  This will all vary depending on the nature of the ad, of course, but with creativity and intelligence it can be done effectively.  Identifying keywords for seasonal / situational occurrences present the same kind of opportunity.  We know that after the Super Bowl the search engines are going to be flooded with searches that have to do with the commercials, companies, and their products.  For example if you have a site that sells underwear, and there was a memorable Victoria Secret commercial that generates a “buzz”  … let’s go out on a limb and say, Zebras for example; then tailor your keywords and associated new content to more closely associate your site and products with this buzz.  It could even be just a comparison piece.

If you really cannot capture any of the traffic that will arise out of the Super Bowl ads, knowledge can still be attained.  Some of the best marketing is always done during this time of year.  Here are some things that Super Bowl advertisers use:

1)    Know the target Audience:

By knowing the target audience you can really focus on trends that appeal to targeted demographics, creating or extending identification with that demographic group.

2)    Research:

Research recent trends in the world and in pop culture; try to capitalize on anything current that can grab people’s attention.

3)    Involve Customers

Make your marketing campaign interactive.  Surveys, Polls, Opinion Solicitations are all useful tools to engage target markets

4)    Know your Competition

Where can you shine better than your competition and seek ways to exploit those advantages

5)    Tease

Create a buzz.  Give your audience a reason to continue to pay attention due to an upcoming event, announcement or other form of “strategic mystery.”

6)    Events Are a good way to Unveil a Product

If the buzz is established, then use a special day that people will remember to unveil a product, such as a holiday….or the Super Bowl for example

Hopefully these suggestions can help you capitalize on this weekend’s madness.  Of course, if you need more help you know where to reach us.

February 18, 2010

However, I recently learned of Daylite from Marketcircle and signed up for a free 30-day trial.  Daylite is a Contact Manager that is plenty robust enough to meet the needs of any sales rep or sales manager.  Adding and importing contacts is easy.  It rather seamlessly syncs with AddressBook and ICal which makes it sync well with PDA’s.  My Blackberry Storm syncs great using PocketMac.

Daylite works a little differently than ACT! as it handles activities a bit differently and it takes some getting used to.  However Marketcircle has a series of video tutorials that are quite helpful.  The entire system relies on a sophisticated linking system where contacts, organizations, activities, tasks, projects, documents are linked with one another and accessed through one common interface.

Those presently using ACT! and would like a Mac-based solution to contact management, should seriously consider Daylite.  So far, I haven’t found myself missing anything on ACT!.  There is also a good tutorial video that is specific to ACT! users that explains the features and differences.

As I have written before, its all well and good to get high rankings on Google through Search Engine Optimization.  But once you’ve figured out how to get lots of people to the site and filling out the lead forms, what are you doing with these leads?  How long does it take for you to respond?  What is your sales process?  Are you following this process?  Do you track your process?  Do you track your results?
Using Daylite provides a key tool to allow you to focus on maximizing your sales time by staying organized, focused, and clearly demonstrating to all those you interact with that you are on the ball.

From lead generation to final sale, contact management software is the primary tool for efficiency and effectiveness.  Mac users now have a reliable application to manage and execute their sales process.

Arthur Cooper

January 25, 2009

Out of the three players involved, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Rudy Fernandez of the Portland Trailblazers, and Joe Alexander of the Milwaukee Bucks, Joe Alexander prevailed.   The reason that Joe won had nothing to do with his in-game performances or his fame outside of basketball.  First of all, Joe plays in one of the smallest markets in the country, Milwaukee.  One can argue that Russell Westbrook plays in Oklahoma City which is also a small market, but Russell has gotten a lot of fame from playing for powerhouse UCLA in college and going to two consecutive final fours, not to mention all of the national coverage he got last year.  Rudy Fernandez was a pro basketball player in Spain for the past 4 years, was one of the best players on the Spanish Olympic team that took Team USA to the limit this summer, and has name recognition worldwide.  Joe Alexander is a country boy out of West Virginia that barely got attention the last few months of his senior year in college last year.  It didn’t seem like he really had much of an advantage going into this contest.  Not only was he not a household name, but he only averages 11.8 minutes a game compared to Fernandez’s 26.4 and Westbrook’s 30.8 minutes per game.  That’s not really a substantial enough amount of time to showcase one’s skills; he doesn’t even average 5 points per game.  So how in the world can a no name rookie like Joe Alexander win over two more heralded athletes?  Simple answer …marketing.

Joe was the only one out of the three to take it upon himself to get his name out there.  He started by creating a website, www.voteforjoe.com  , in which he posted blogs and several videos urging fans to vote not only every day, but every hour  according to the guidelines of the competition.  He also had a direct link on his site where you can click and vote for him.  His videos ranged from him showing off his jumping skills, to more comedic versions of himself proving that he is worthy to be in the contest.  For example, one of the videos shows his skills in dunking Oreos into milk, and paper balls into a trashcan.  The videos are mainly satirical comedy that last from about 30 to 60 seconds.  He made a new video every week, following the advice of most marketers by updating content on a regular basis.  He even went on national television and radio to urge fans to go out and vote for him.  He ran a better campaign than John McCain!

What is the moral of this story?  The point is, that with some time, creativity, and the correct marketing strategies, anyone can make themselves relevant and “happening” online.  It’s obvious that he had help, and who ever helped him knew what they were doing.  Not only did he regularly update his video content, but his blogs as well.  Despite his lack of playing time, fame, and name recognition Joe Alexander became an internet sensation.  Even more than that, he made himself into a public figure and personality that I doubt the other two stars will come close to.  He may not ever end up being as good as a basketball player or dunker then Rudy Fernandez or Russell Westbrook, but he didn’t have to be.

So for all of you small fries out there that feel you can’t compete with the big name competition, stop doubting yourself.  Take a tip from Joe, get some good marketing advice, do something different that your competition isn’t doing, and make your brand stand out and have a voice.  If a white boy born in Taiwan, raised in China, who went to high school in Maryland and played for a small West Virginia University can beat out 2 of the most heralded rookies to come into the NBA this year, then why can’t you beat your competition.  We all just need the right advice and motivation; it can go a long way.

January 15, 2009

The Internet is a new frontier; the New Manifest Destiny of the 21st century. After you obtain real Estate, a domain, and your products, you can then start selling. It seems easy, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. It requires a lot of serious dedication. Hours upon hours of research is needed to find the perfect industry.

There are several superstar affiliate marketers making a million plus in profits by marketing other people’s products. However, you must find a niche that can be easily exploited, and profited from.

In order to fully grasp the concept, you have to understand the Advertiser and the products or services you are selling.

Use this method to gain traffic and brand awareness:

Traffic & Branding

The amount of traffic an affiliate needs to send to an advertiser has to be significant in order for the affiliate to make some serious “Pay My Bills and Then Some” cash.  If we use an example of selling IPhones for $100, and Apple pays the affiliate 10%; in order to make $2000 a month, the affiliate would need to send Apple $20,000 in sales. That translates to 200 IPhones the affiliate has to sell.

With real world experience and testing, if an affiliate can get 5% of the traffic they send to the advertiser to t convert into 1 sale, then that translates to 4,000 visitors a month they have to send Apple.

From a Branding perspective, if only 5% of the traffic converts into sales, 100% of the traffic now knows the Apple brand.

From an affiliate’s perspective, they know they need to send 4,000 visitors to their landing pages to convert 200 people into sales for Apple.  This should result in $20,000 for Apple and $2000 a month for the affiliate.

Looking again from the advertiser’s perspective, their only cost for 4,000 people sending them traffic is $2,000, about $2 a person to get brand recognition. It only cost them $10 to make $100 sales revenue. The advertiser is winning. At the same time, the affiliate is making money but doing most of the work.

This is the relationship that affiliate and advertisers have with one another. They complement each other. An advertiser must get content, images, and videos of their products/services to the affiliate in order for the affiliate to do their job correctly.  The implementation of content is very significant and cannot be overlooked.

Adelard Gasana

January 15, 2009

The Mozilla developers decided to make Firefox 3.1 and future Russian Firefox builds default to Yandex.  “All this activity led us to the conclusion that our Russian users really wanted direct access to the Yandex search services in official Firefox RU builds,” Mozilla General Counsel Harvey Anderson said.

“As a result, we’re planning on setting Yandex as the default search provider for the Firefox 3.1 Russian locale builds,” he said. Version 3.1 is due in coming weeks, after a third beta version is released and tested.

Mozilla gets the vast majority of its revenue through a partnership with Google.  In 2007, $66 million of the $75 million Mozilla made was from this Google partnership.

What this means for a search engine optimizer is something I’ve been stressing since day one. Make sure you target all search engines, and don’t focus on getting rankings for just one. There are several developed countries that use a particular search engine as #1. This of course depends on your targeted audience and the country.
When creating an Internet Marketing Campaign you have to look at the stats and position in as many search engines as possible. There are surprises everywhere. For years I have resisted Microsoft as a company and as a search engine, but what I’ve learned and heard over the years about the search engine’s conversion rate has been astounding.

My results, as well as other Internet Marketing Companies I’ve spoken with, show MSN and Live sending highly converting traffic. The amount of monthly traffic is usually less than 1/10 of what Google sends in a day but the conversions are usually higher than Google or Yahoo. I have no theory for this, but I welcome it. I don’t change my views about Microsoft, but will welcome their highly converting traffic any time of the day.

When planning out an Internet marketing campaign, try to target as many search engines as possible to get to your targeted audience. If your targeted audience is in another country for example, have your marketing plan geared towards the language and customs of the country.

Do your research; don’t assume that everyone uses Google or Internet Explorer… Firefox for example has surpassed the 20% mark in the US, but 1 year ago in Europe it was already at 22%. The demographic of your targeted audience is crucial when designing any Internet Marketing campaign.

Adelard Gasana

January 14, 2009

I will admit I have a twitter account and have only two entries on it. I am now seriously thinking about integrating this technology more into the social media marketing aspects for clients. This will of course depend on the clients’ targeted audience.

As with all new technologies and gadgets, implementation on just any website doesn’t make sense. If the site is not designed or geared for B2C (business to consumer) then it is pointless.

The targeted audience must be the basis of any new idea that is placed on a website. Sometimes these new technologies can turn off users. Repeat visitors might see it as a way of ignoring the current audience and trying the new fad. Then there are more home-brewed grassroots websites which require the newest technologies. A personal blog would be a perfect example. People who are interested in what you do on a daily basis might expect to find you on twitter. Your readers can stay up to date on your daily activities with the utilization of twitter.

Another interesting side note pertaining to social media is Facebook.  They ended 08 by edging out MySpace in US traffic. Social media, and web 2.0 has come a long way in 08, I’m excited to see what is going to happen on 09. What new startup is going to take the scene by storm?

Adelard Gasana

January 14, 2009

1.    Traffic on our website is up significantly; over 30% just last quarter.
2.    Leads are higher than ever.  We can hardly keep up with them.
3.    We are looking to hire more people due to the new clients we are getting.
4.    The clients are finding us because we are easily found now on Google for highly productive and targeted keywords.
5.    They like what they see and they are calling us or filling in our online form in record numbers.
6.    They are finding that we can demonstrate to them high quality, highly profitable results for our clients; all verifiable and in real time.
7.    They are interviewing our clients and getting strong confirmation of great results.
8.    We are expecting a record year.

Why will we not be victims of this recession?
We simply choose not to be a victim.  We believe strongly that we are providing great value.  We are working very hard that our message and results are being seen precisely by those who are looking for high level performance in internet marketing, search engine marketing and online profits.

100% of our marketing is online and zero percent is used for traditional marketing.  The reasons for this are many; most important among them is that traditional marketing is inherently inefficient and wasteful … in recessionary environments as well as boom environments.

So, choose not to be a victim of a recession.  Make a plan that seeks to improve the efficiency of your online marketing efforts; just don’t try to sit it out … it will be a long wait and you will be even further behind the 8 ball compared to your competitors.

Arthur Cooper

January 11, 2009

The bigger a company is and the more complex its structure, the more vulnerable its marketing department will be. Many marketers might disagree with me on this point, however, current statistics involving many big players in the market prove my point. We all know that consumers are spending less money and it has direct affects on companies; however marketing is not the same thing as advertising. This is a major difference that is misinterpreted quite often.

FedEx announced that it’s trimming its 2009 marketing budget by 25% this morning on the corporate blog. They stated that the cuts would most likely come in “non-contractual” agreements. So what does this really mean? It means that they would keep their long term sponsorships, which are really important to them, and make cancellations in short term marketing efforts such as Viral Marketing and Online Marketing. NASCAR Races and the National Football League agreements are signed long term and it would not be wise for FedEx to cancel something like that since they’re a name brand.

So, will companies actually start getting rid of short-term marketing efforts? I believe that online marketing, branding, as well as viral marketing would be on top of that list. But are these the only cuts?

The answer to that question may be found in Home Depot’s latest announcement that was released this morning. After 16 years of sponsorship for US Olympic and Paralympics Teams, Home Depot decided to suddenly end it. This was a major long-term deal; it was a major part of their marketing efforts worth approximately 5 million dollars per year. Of course, the bad economy is to blame again.

This tells us that nobody is really safe. Seems like no marketing effort or sponsorship is strong enough to stand against the economic downturn. However, I still believe that we cannot draw a conclusion from a sample size of 2 big companies. Although, the majority of companies who have enjoyed double-digit annual growth rates for the past decade will start to cut back, there are still many companies who are experiencing stable growth. There’s still enough space for innovation and creativity, which by the way, always nourishes even in the worst of economic times.

My marketing friends … hang in there. Keep creating ideas, innovation, new technologies, and strategies. This is our time to grow and make a difference. This is our time to show other industries how it’s done. It’s time to separate the men from the boys.

-Duran Inci
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123137607705762973.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/01/05/daily73.html

January 11, 2009

The introduction of the IPhone ignited a new wave of mobile technologies for businesses and consumers alike. I believe that, as marketers, we will leverage from these developments. Mobile Marketing is something businesses cannot ignore due to its burgeoning popularity internationally. In Europe, 20% of the population has some type of cellular device. With all the new applications and innovations, more users will buy smart phones and incorporate these devices into their daily lives. What better way to market then to target this sector!

The more we research, the more ways we will learn how to target this new segment of consumers. If you go to the Application Store for the IPhone, you will see the creativity in progress. You can install many applications that help you organize your financials, create a shopping list, count calories, and, of course, games to keep to keep you engaged and entertained. For example, just imagine cross-marketing different products from different industries to the same consumer.

A recent development was the introduction of the infamous game “SIMS” on the IPhone. For only $9.99, you can install SIMS on your IPhone and live in the cyber world as another character. Can you exist in 2 different universes at the same time? There are an estimated 20 million users of the IPhone in the world. Just imagine the possibilities.
With the introduction of the new blackberry Storm, PDA devices, and smart phones, the market will only get bigger as people continue to adapt to these technologies into their daily lives. If you still doubt the usefulness of mobile marketing, think again.

The question is, “What can you really do?” You might hear yourself saying “It’s not for every business or industry.” We would strongly disagree. Creativity will find a way to incorporate mobile applications to your marketing strategy. Even if it just means to have a mobile version of your website, it would be a good start. As communications get more complicated, new innovations will keep the industry alive and create ways for marketers to be involved in ways that they would never imagine. So get rid of your doubts and get in the game, there are only so many spots for new players.

-Duran Inci

January 7, 2009

You really need to think it through because the price quotes will not tell you anything you really need to know.

Before you look at price, consider getting the answers to the following questions FIRST:

1.    What are the business objectives you are seeking?
2.    Which competitors seem to be achieving at a high level?  Do you wish to emulate these results?
3.    Are you willing to do what is necessary to compete effectively?
4.    How are you going to learn what is necessary to achieve such results?
5.    What are your top 25 keywords and how many competing pages are there for those terms?
6.    What is your vision of your website?
7.    What do you consider to be a successful website visit?  What do you want a visitor to do when they arrive and before they leave?
8.    How am I going to find a highly performing internet marketing company?
9.    Is it important that I see solid results in terms of design, online visibility, and conversions for existing clients before I actually hire an internet marketing company?
10.    Is it important that I interview existing clients of companies I am considering to verify client satisfaction and bottom line ROI?
11.    What are your realistic expectations in sales and profits in the next year, 3 years and 5 years?
12.    What are you willing to invest to achieve such results?
13.    What kind of effort are you willing to commit to the success of your website?

Price quotes and even phone calls don’t mean a thing unless you focus on your objectives and RESULTS.  You need to identify these and own them before price quotes have any meaning.  After all, going for the lowest price (the likely reason for the price quote request) can be the most expensive thing you can do.  Consider the cost of poor results, in money wasted, in time wasted and the opportunity cost wasted.

Get committed to your success and invest yourself.  There are much more important numbers you need to determine before a price quote has any relevance.

Arthur Cooper

January 6, 2009

We all want to stay in the game, and the game has indeed been a challenge since Google’s inception in 2000. Despite many changes, new companies, and innovations, Google is still the leader in Search Technology. They are also the most innovative in their field.  Most importantly, they are profitable. How do you justify pricing YouTube and Facebook for billions of dollars when they do not even make money? Can you say the same for your own company or marketing operation? How valuable is your staff in the development of your company? Are they involved in the decision-making process regarding new innovations and technologies? Are you listening to them?

One of the most important factors in the development of a company is the commitment of its employees in the company’s success. Of course, you cannot create this commitment from thin air. People always need to be motivated and they need to see improvement. Therefore, as an owner or as an executive, you have to make sure that there’s always a means of discussion and an outlet for new ideas in the company. You are also responsible for the growth of the company, which is only possible through collaboration between management and your staff.  Here are some questions you should ask;

• Are you listening to your staff?

Everybody has ideas and thoughts. Sometimes they’re too risky and sometimes they’re just perfect. You would never know without asking your staff. Involve them in conversations regarding the company and the marketing process and listen. Nothing negative will come out of a productive discussion.

• Are you keeping your staff up to date on developments?

Daily tasks take up a lot of time and sometimes your staff might not have time to keep up with all the technology news and developments. Are you keeping them up to date? Are you up to date? Change is sometimes inevitable.  When it comes down to productivity, you should always find a way to stay on top of changes and developments.

• Do you have a way to double check?

You might assign certain tasks to your staff to be implemented. Always make sure there are milestones with firm due dates. This will make your process more effective. You should also implement a system to be able to double check if your staff is doing their work correctly. Are there any spelling errors or code errors? No matter what services you offer, you should stick to a project management system. Technology is hard enough without an effective automated system.

These are just a couple of ways to keep your staff in the loop when it comes to the welfare and development of your company. You have to make them understand that work needs to be done, but at the same time, show them that you are on the same team.  My last suggestion would be to NEVER overload your employees with work, make sure there’s time for ideas and innovation. Growth is not only a function of sales and a growing staff; it is also a function of well developed communication processes anchored by a strong project management system.

Duran Inci

January 6, 2009

Back to basics … what is the job of the website?  If it is about doing business then why put an “out of order” sign on the website when it comes to being found for your products and services.  This is essentially what a Flash Website does for a business website.  You are left with a static brochure that will only be found by those who already know the url and those folks don’t need a search engine to find the site.

When I inform the online inquirer of the situation, their reaction is often one of frustration and even anger because they just didn’t know.  The most important thing is that they separated or segmented the design piece with the marketing piece.  This should never be done.  It is counter-intuitive for many who are unaware of the core issues involved in website design that directly and indirectly affect the ability of the spiders to.  They incorrectly feel that you first design the site and then you figure out how to promote the site.  What they are missing is the planning step; that is to know what the end result of the entire project is to be.  Thinking this through will generate answers to key questions such as:

1.    What is the job of the website?
2.    What do I want to be able to say about the website in one year, three years, and five years?
3.    Who are the professionals I will need to make this a reality?
4.    How will people find the site?
5.    What does it take to be found?
6.    How should I best coordinate this effort?

It’s about planning first, then executing.  The fix for those who have already created an search engine unfriendly website is to redesign the site so that is programmed and coded to easily allow the search engines to understand what all of your pages are about and how they logically interact with each other.

It’s best to find an accomplished Internet Marketing Company that is fully integrated offering website design, web programming, search engine optimization, seo copywriting, and all of the other sub-specialties that make for a fully coordinated approach to online marketing.

Arthur Cooper

January 6, 2009

The 3 players to be voted on are rookies Russell Westbrook, Joe Alexander, and Rudy Fernandez.  My front runner to win this award is Joe Alexander of the Milwaukee Bucks.  The reason I have him winning over the other two has nothing to do with their game performances and high flying dunks, but out of the three Joe is the only one who has launched a pretty successful viral marketing campaign.

Not only does he have the same video highlights as the other contestants on NBA.com, but he has put out several YouTube videos and has created a website with other videos and links to the page where you can vote for him.  The site is www.seejoedunk.com.  He is currently ahead in the online polls, but the contest is still about a month and a half away.  The other two contestants have plenty of time to launch their own viral marketing campaigns.  With the success that Joe Alexander is having, my hunch is that they will.

February 18, 2010

Falling into Jeans (Levi) – These videos were very original and fun.  Guys’ jumping off of tall objects in their underwear into Levi jeans was a great idea for a viral marketing campaign.  These videos are all over YouTube and are now being aired on television.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShf2VuAu_Q

Vote 4 Chris Bosh as an NBA All-Star- Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh brought it upon himself to get voted as a starter to the Eastern Conference All-Stars.  Not only did he have a career year statistically, but he put out a series of YouTube videos with him in a Cowboy Outfit talking with a southern accent urging fans to vote for Chris Bosh.  This was something never done before by a professional athlete.  Now this idea has caught on and is being used by various NBA players involved in the Slam Dunk Competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7IZP7u9FE

Kobe Bryant Jumps Over Aston Martin (Nike) – We have mentioned this before on this blog, but regardless, it was one of the better viral campaigns of the year.  The video was only released on YouTube and was a super smash on MySpace.  It was marketing for his new shoe that came out shortly after the launching of the videos.  The campaign was a huge success as the shoe was the top selling basketball shoe of the year.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hWJkdUMiMw

Ball Girl’s Amazing Catch (Gatorade) – I didn’t see this video until recently, and I have to say it is very entertaining.  It’s obviously fake but that’s not the point; it makes us feel that we can accomplish amazing athletic accomplishments without having to be a professional athlete.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SqJz0NgnnE

February 18, 2010

Social networking websites like FaceBook and MySpace have become platforms for virtual gaming. There is a lot of money to be made in this new market. This is an example of distribution and product innovation-in which the majority of video games are no longer coming in boxes but straight from social networking. Many professionals and adults do not have time for Playstation and Nintendo but have time to play convenient games on an Internet browser.

The use of extremely popular social networking websites such as FaceBook and MySpace as distribution channels for virtual games is fascinating. These two websites alone rank among the top ten in the world in website traffic (according to alexa.com). They are currently ranked number 7 and number 8 in the world in website traffic. Game developers have noticed this and their target market may soon change to create games that are turn-based or fall into the “social category”. It seems like the future of video games might be digital, as new online stores for games have appeared. Users of FaceBook and MySpace can add applications (or games) with just a button. Trial versions of games are distributed this way. Yahoo used to be a big channel for advertising and distributing games; however that’s all changing slowly as Yahoo loses its loyal customer base.

This product and distribution innovation fuels the exchange of further development of online gaming technologies and more exchanges can take place which may lead to more daily traffic. A lot of users come back each day to check their social game status. Within these same games, marketers of video games can place advertisements. Game developers make money off of the advertisements, as do the social networking websites.

As users get more knowledgeable and savvy about advertisements, marketers need to get more and more creative. It’s an exciting challenge with a path full of new innovations and technologies being created within the next 5 years. Individuals and companies with the right approach and vision will take advantage of the increasingly complex interlinking of the Online Social World and generate millions of dollars of revenue for themselves as well as their clients. At the end of the day, nobody likes to be sold, but everybody enjoys buying!

-Duran INCI

December 4, 2008

I’ve had several years of experience generating leads through websites, and want to share a story of one such experience.

A while back I was brought aboard a lead generating company in the financial field. My sole job was to generate leads for the sales team. There were 3 young inexperienced sales persons for purpose of this example will call them Ted, Jed, and Fred. There was 1 highly experience sales person, Steve, who was also brought on to manage the 3 young guys.

I started by using my SEO and PPC techniques and methods to generate traffic.   Soon we had a quick flow of about 30 to 50 leads just from search engine optimized organic traffic; the pay per click campaign worked perfectly. I was able to generate real time exclusive leads for under $10.

Whenever we needed an influx of leads, all I had to do was turn on the PPC campaign, and turn up that day’s budget.

Things started rolling really excellently at first. Lead flow was coming about 60 to 70 a day after about 2 months of work on my end, and the owners and managers where ecstatic, except for me.

I saw it coming from a mile away and didn’t have anything in place to control or “manage” the leads. The three inexperience salespersons were burning through leads left and right, looking for lay-up or slam-dunk deals. All the leads were on paper, and if you are getting 60 pieces of paper a day, you soon will have a mess on your hands.

Some leads they would get and only call once.  Often they would let them die because the person didn’t answer the phone that time. Any experienced sales person will tell you that calling once and giving up shows a lack of appreciation for the lead source.

Steve on the other hand called all his leads around the clock, at nights, weekends. He made sure that he called a lead at least 20 times before considering it dead.

Three months went by and the owners of the company finally got rid of the 3 inexperienced sales reps but unfortunately put the burden on the shoulders of Steve. Steve then had to manage the leads of 4 salespersons, and within 1 week got burned out. I later talked to Steve on the side and he told me what he needed was a system that will eliminate the paperwork, and allow him to work more efficiently. Within 2 weeks I built him a lead management program that allowed him not only to manage his leads, but allowed the company to hire more sale persons and have Steve manage the lead distribution. The company soon grew to having over 20 salespeople; all working within the lead management system I created. Later on I moved on to bigger and better things but kept the experience and knowledge I had to learn the hard way. With lead management system that tracks all leads throughout the sales process, you really don’t have a way of insuring that all leads are called and getting the attention they deserve.

December 3, 2008

Most great companies in the beginning are hyper-focused on their message and their goals. Once they reach them, what else is there to do?
That’s where companies go astray. Brand-extension is the name, and over confident executives are the players of the game. What’s intriguing is how they go about creating operating systems to take on the #1 video game console.

What’s the thought process of the think group that comes up with some of these wacky ideas? What I’ve come to realize is that most great innovations and ideas are done from the 9 am to 5 pm hours of the day, but the 11 pm to 5 am of the night that sets off a thought, an idea that creates a momentum of energy to produce great results.

There seems to be less innovation and a lot more me-too copycats that take an idea and spin 10% of that idea and attempt to claim it as innovation.

The world needs more of these “Outliers” (“Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell) that see the world as different, and don’t accept limits placed upon them.   They are the ones awake at night trying to get an idea down on paper.

December 3, 2008

The e-reader was introduced back in September. The use of this product will provide publishers and newspaper companies with an exceptional gadget. They can determine who is reading their paper, and even which articles are being read. Advertisers would be able to recognize their viewers and direct advertising to its most profitable customers. The reader will simplify the customer segmentation process tremendously by identifying profitable customers based on how many times they have utilized the electronic reader. They can conduct surveys and determine demographic, lifestyle, geographic, and life cycle stages of their most profitable customers. They can define and deliver tailored value propositions to those customer segments and obtain feedback from segments of the market on how to improve product functionality, appearance, quality, service, and support. This electronic reader is thinner than a typical pad of notebook paper, measures 8.5 inches by 11 inches and has a lightweight flexible plastic screen that imitates the looks of a newspaper. The manufacturer expects to create a new screen within the next couple of years that would allow users to write on it and view videos. This is a perfect example of product innovation that creates value to both business and consumers. The ability of this device to continually update via a wireless link, store and display hundreds of pages of newspapers, books and documents, creates tremendous value for consumers.

With the implementation of this new device, businesses such as newspaper companies will experience large savings in printing and delivering, which may lead to greater profitability. Marketing exchanges will increase between e-newspaper manufacturers and newspaper companies making them better off, create more capital, which can ultimately be reinvested in research and development leading to new product innovations. It’s what we see in sci-fi movies where everybody has a digital reader in their hands.

This innovation has created interest because of successful product development and brand management. The company focused on the benefits of their product in comparison to the competition by using the quality function deployment process.  The consumer benefits include crisp images with a lightweight mechanism along with the engineering capabilities to store and retrieve massive amounts of information. The value added to the e-reader thrusts it into a previously selective consideration set. Introducing the product in a tradeshow allowed the company to debut its new e-reader to many people simultaneously. Those who attend electronic tradeshows are looking for trendy innovations and are not as hesitant to purchase a product with a $350 price tag. In addition, consumer feedback received on the e-reader prototype can quickly be assimilated into the manufacturing process. Once perfected, the final product will include additional benefits and upgrades.  Creating a buzz about the product at the DEMO conference, a tradeshow, is a great marketing strategy for introducing a new brand into the market .The capabilities of an e-reader are just recently being enjoyed by the innovators and early adaptors of the consumer database. The concept of an e-reader is not new, but analyzing the need to diversify into other profitable segments pushed PlasticLogic to create a product that is compact and adaptable to various consumer situations while being priced competitively. Broadening its manufacturing process internationally with the construction of a factory in Germany lowers the cost of production while expanding its brand interest and consumer base. Setting a price that is competitive enables the consumer to base their decision making process on added value rather than price.
While product innovation is essential, we can never underestimate the importance of a good and effective marketing plan. PlasticLogic has definitely done that.

December 3, 2008

Mercedes Benz has ignored the segment of hybrid cars in the automobile sales category for years. The hybrid segment is the one category in automotive production where the production does not meet the demand; the two components that are driving sales in this category are gasoline prices and the increased concern of the environmental impact of automobile emissions. The release of a hybrid model by Mercedes Benz came ten years after Toyota Motors released the Prius Hybrid, a vehicle with sales surpassing a million units per year. Is it too late for Mercedes Benz? Only time will tell. One of the reasons for Mercedes Benz taking ten years to get into hybrid production is because they initially went with diesel car production. The main reason they chose the diesel was because the technology was already invented and all that was needed was improvement in the performance and this would keep the innovation cost down. The only problem in that plan was the consumers started demanding hybrid cars and not producing one was devastating to automakers. (GM, Ford, Chrysler. Ring a bell?) However, Mercedes Benz executives still don’t feel like their customer base has reached the stage of enlightenment and would want to trade in their big cars to drive smart on vacation.

Segmentation is the key element when it comes to the sale of luxury cars. Mercedes launching its new S-Class hybrid is a case in which a successful company has innovated an exclusive/desirable product. Value is what separates the Mercedes S-Class and the Toyota Prius. Some people, particularly those who are wealthy, see more value and style in cars at double and sometimes triple the price of the market average.

New advances in technology are quickly replacing old obsolete products. Having a strong product development emphasis was central to Toyota’s success. Their product research and development team did their homework and the results were positive. However, by investing into the wrong idea, a company can lose money. Another reason Mercedes entered the hybrid market so late is because they and other German automakers such as BMW and Audi decided to focus more on optimizing diesel engines. While they may be popular now, in the future they may be obsolete with oil prices continuing to climb higher and higher.

Mercedes is taking a step in the right direction by releasing a hybrid car. Toyota and Honda, both Japanese companies have newly innovated cars for consumers, and by looking at the prices, both can appear to be just as luxurious. Toyota luxury line, Lexus, has its LS 600h priced around $105,000 dollars and the new innovated Honda Hydrogen, can be leased for three years at $600 a month.

Besides segmentation, product innovation is crucial for the success of automakers. It would appear that the Japanese are well ahead, and in order for U.S and German automakers to take back market share, they will have to research and innovate. Nothing is a better example than the financial situation of the big 3 car companies in Detroit nowadays. They should learn from their mistakes, or just learn from the competition.

-Duran Inci

November 24, 2008

The makers of BlackBerry are expanding their market from high-end business users to consumers. BlackBerry has always been very strong in the commercial market, mainly because of its ability to help people access their e-mail, contacts, and calendars. After Apple’s iPhone Division introduced a handset version design to appeal to the business users, Research in Motion is responding to this by announcing new features to appeal to a broader group of consumers.

This new rivalry could be seen as destructive for both companies, but it is rather beneficial. Since both companies are getting into each other markets’ niche, this will benefit consumers. Both companies are investing more money to develop new features and may even lower prices to increase their sales.   This may expand the already growing market for smart phones and with more sales the wealth of the firms will increase and consequently they will continue investing; a virtuous cycle of sorts. This is a win/win situation for the both the firms and consumers. For example, RIMM plans to announce new features for their new cell phone that allows clients to control their TiVo and have access to their MySpace network. So, do not be surprised if one of these days you can watch your favorite TV program, be in contact with your friend via e-mail and manage your business all at once with your smart phone.

I have worked with both the Blackberry and the IPhone, due to its advantages for me, I prefer the IPhone. However, the Blackberry is coming out with much improved designs and uses for their phones making them a much tougher competitor vs. IPhone. I never had thought about the price. Yet if the blackberry lowers their prices, they are going to have a much wider range of customers than IPhone. Even though IPhone has lowered prices, it’s still more expensive than Blackberry. I think that even within the same segment, they have different subgroups who buy their products. The blackberry is much more of a business phone and appeals to many people in high-end business, while IPhone appeals more to the entertainment side of costumers. It is a close call for both companies, yet I do believe that their rivalry can be of good to them both with different target groups and different market strategies. Maybe one day they could join their innovations and make a phone that would wow the imagination.

One could also argue the fact that when it comes to iPhone vs. Blackberry the question is not which one appeals to business and which one appeals to regular consumers, but its marketing. Both products have almost the same features like email, speed and ergonomic looks. While Blackberry has always focused on a business type consumer, Apple found a way to appeal to both business and regular consumers. iPhone is a better marketed product. The iPhone can most definitely be used for business purposes As a matter of fact, that’s the first reason it came out.   Now with the new features like the application store, it can be used as more of an everyday phone. Granted, Blackberry isn’t too far off the competition, now with their soon to be launched “Blackberry Storm” they will be appealing to regular consumers. Blackberry is getting better at marketing to a bigger audience but iPhone is still way ahead from purely a marketing and general population appeal point of view.

Duran Inci

November 15, 2008

However, the writings that I read are not really focussing on the fact that one backlink is not as good as another backlink.  The articles generally fail to state that the backlinks need to be highly relevant and focused on one or two very defined keywords.  Search is and will always be about RELEVANCE.  If you think about it, this is not a very brave or even instructive point.  How can search by definition ever not be about relevance first.

However, you can buy backlinks, you can get free backlinks through directories or other online indexing options.  However these are not nearly as good, i.e. point-getting, as naturally-occurring-backlinks that have highly relevant content on both sides of the link.

Specifically, ARTICLES … relevant content, focused on keywords, that is unique, optimized and directly linked by a website, such as an online publisher, directly to relevant content on a particular page on the website being optimized.

Its easy to understand that a naturally occurring, highly relevant backlink is going to score significantly more “Google Points” than any other kind of backlink.  A website is linking to you without asking for anything in return … AND … the spiders can tell that both ends of the link are highly relevant.

So, if you are talking to any Internet Marketing Company, Internet Consultant, SEO, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Company, if they aren’t emphasizing content and relevant backlinks, they aren’t focusing on the most important “differentiator” in the Search Engine World.

And you can be certainl of one thing:  Those on page 1 of Google for a competitive term are not there by accident … they have more highly relevant, naturally occurring backlinks than those not on page 1.

Arthur Cooper

November 12, 2008

For those of you who don’t know, A.D.D. is Attention Deficit Disorder and you have it.  Don’t worry, we all do and it’s not as bad as you think.  ADD causes one to have a short attention span and makes it difficult for the mind to focus for long durations of time.  How does this relate to internet marketing?  If you haven’t figured that out by now then you must have a severe case, so go see an ADD Specialist.  As for the rest of us, people don’t want to sit and stay on a site for a long period of time.  There are so many distractions that can lead your site to a high bounce rate that it is imperative to devise a plan to keep the user’s eyes fixated on your page.  Distractions can come in the form of pop-up ads, emails, instant messages, and those are only from the computer.  Think about all of the real life distractions that happen to us live.  If you don’t have something on your site that will catch the users attention at least initially, then they will bounce; literally and figuratively.

To clear things up a bit allow me to use an analogy.  Imagine the Internet as an endless magazine that you would pick up at a supermarket.  Usually people tend to quickly flip through the pages unless something on a page catches their eye.  “Britney Spears is back in Rehab!” or “The truth about Obama unveiled!” Once their attention is captured, the content on the page keeps them engaged.  The same can be applied to the web.  If the user isn’t initially attracted that they will turn the page.

So we have diagnosed the online community with Attention Deficit Disorder, given that, what is the prescription?  Make your site stand out in a unique way.  If someone could only see your site for ten seconds, will they take away or remember anything from it?  What do you have to keep them entertained and get them over the initial ADD slump?

Once you have your users mind occupied on your site make sure to display the important content in a way that isn’t too time consuming or boring.  Devise a way to give small pieces of information at a time.  People with short attention spans need bits and pieces, too much all at one time will lead to another turn of a page.  Also, those of us with ADD love multimedia.  Bells and whistles will hook us right in.  If we hear something loud, listen to something interesting, or see something new and shiny then you succeeded at getting our attention, at least for the time being.  While we are distracted now is your opportunity to reel us in.

Let us not see our new found learning disability as a fall back.  Let us use this as another way to come up with some innovative marketing and design strategies to keep the average web surfer involved.  Research other areas of interest that your demographic is involved in and use that as a platform to draw them in.  .  Just don’t be distracted!

“The more original a discovery is, the more obvious it seems afterwards.” (Arthur Koestler)

February 16, 2010

I am a middle aged small business owner of two companies, one in telecommunications and one in internet marketing.  I did not vote for you because I disagreed with much of what you espoused during the campaign.

However, you are my President and I pray for your wisdom and success in leading our country.  I do not agree with extremists that appear to be against you just because their guy lost.  I am an American, first and always, so I want you to do great things for our country.

Clearly the economy is front and center as surely your highest priority and I believe you agree with this.  I just want you to know that we work with many small businesses like ours who are owned by entrepreneurs that do earn more than $200-$250K per year.  If you hike the federal income tax on the owners of these businesses, they will have no choice but to cut back in their business and in their own personal spending as well.  Hiking the FICA tax will just exacerbate the situation. This will no doubt lead to more lost jobs and can potentially snowball.

I believe you need to undertstand this because it is unquestionably true.  If you raise taxes paid by the owners of small businesses, jobs will be lost and prices will be increased to compensate for the lost income.  And it will be the poor who will end up suffering as well because they will have to pay the higher prices.  So, if you increase taxes your create a major source for price inflation and that isn’t good for anybody.

My Internet Marketing Services Company works everyday to generate growth and profits for our clients.  I want you to institute pro-growth policies based on incentives and merit.  This is how our country became great and that is how you can help it become greater than ever.  So please understand, I am with you as is a great majority of Americans.  Make government work to ENABLE opportunity and not make it a scarce commodity.

With Great Respect and Admiration,

Arthur Cooper

November 7, 2008

Nike launched a new ad campaign in September in Europe “Here I am” to replace the 1988 slogan “Just do it”. This new campaign features the life stories of five top European female athletes. Nike’s new campaign is an example of both segmentation and target marketing. Nike’s aim of promoting to younger women is facilitated by breaking the sportswear market into segments and concentrating on collegiate women. The company used both geographic and demographic segmentation to identify their target market. The inspiration for the ads and slogans developed out of research commissioned by Nike. The research established that European women aren’t as competitive about sports as men. Developing the catchphrase “Here I am” markets specifically to women conveying the message that there is more to sports than getting fit or competing. This enables young women to feel empowered, thus resulting in more sales for Nike. The advertisements include animations of five female athletes. The animations are used to make the female athlete less intimidating, allowing the average woman to relate. This marketing technique attracts younger women who are not very competitive. Self-esteem messages are delivered through the advertisements with the intention of building the confidence in women.

This campaign is innovative, a key to brand building. Years of design and technological innovation are the two main components that have made Nike a strong, favorable, and unique brand image. Like others, Nike is a brand that is recognized by its slogan ‘Just do it’ and has a remarkable identity among its customers. With the new slogan ‘Here I am’, Nike is marketing a new line of women’s clothing, and communicating the value of its products. They are using one of the main tools of marketing: promotion. Using athletic characters such as the tennis star Maria Sharapova, Nike is positioning its product by user, focusing college-age women.

Knowing and understanding their demographic makes the promotion, pricing and distribution of Nike products easier and more cost-effective. Nike’s marketing includes promoting directly to the target by advertising in places that are more likely to be seen by young women, such as the Internet. The company will be placing ads on Facebook, Bebo and other social-networking sites popular with young women. Ads will also appear on video screens in gyms and university student unions across Europe. “Here I am”, the spin-off of the already successful “Just do it”, promises great success for Nike.

Duran Inci

November 7, 2008

Necessity is the mother of invention, and in the business world of today you either keep up or you lose the game. Over the past year Heinz has proved itself to be an emerging product innovator. With innovations such as lighter containers and new caps, Heinz has created a competitive advantage in its market allowing the company to turn from a “sluggish underperformer” to outperforming its leading rivals. Heinz has also expanded its line of products and created many new ones. This gives Heinz a fresh new feel and appeal to customers. By giving customers more choices, as well as new choices they might not have had before, Heinz is changing the way we look at our condiments.

Not only has Heinz expanded its line of products, it has expanded its market as well. Heinz’s traditional customer base was Americans, or consumers of traditional American food. Heinz has now branched out into the Asian market and has made many innovations to target them. The creation of new lighter poaches of soy sauce has appealed to many customers in Indonesia who have to carry their groceries home. With the expansion of new markets Heinz has also been able to introduce old products to new customers introducing ketchup into many homes that had never even heard of the product before. By understanding the wants and needs of its customers, Heinz has been able to be successful not only in a business sense, but also by providing their customers with products that they need AND products they want and would buy again and again.

These new innovations clearly foster increased sales, prices which eventually will be expressed in its stock price and overall shareholder value. The Schumpeter-Smith Wealth Creation Feedback Effect takes place here, where wealth and capital is beginning to build-up and present better opportunities. However, while launching newer brand extensions, Heinz is in fact showing more strength in product development. Brand extensions are an application of an established brand name to new product offerings. As we all know, Heinz is beyond a doubt closing the gap with competitors such as Kraft Foods, Kellogg, and Campbell Soup. Recent examples are Smart Ones breakfast sandwiches and Ore-Ida microwaveable mashed potatoes; Heinz consistently expands its product lines into new markets.

By starting a new line of soy sauces, called ABC, they have segmented the market for Asian consumers. These Asian consumers can be from any life cycle stage, because most households in Asia are likely to cook at home… They targeted customers by including other sauces in the Asian culture in an easy-to-carry and convenient pouch. As opposed to the United States, most Indonesians carry their groceries home. They do not use a car to drive them home. Heinz analyzed this and created an easy to carry pouch for them. Not only is this pouch useful for busy lifestyles, but also the sauce itself is targeting Asian culture because that is their main sauce; like ketchup is ours. In order to meet the needs of the segment, Heinz customized the product’s packaging to include nostalgic elements. Heinz customized the sauce, the packaging, advertised it massively in Asia, and made the product available in local stores… The bottle does not look like an ordinary American ketchup bottle; it is shaped like its competition, Kikkoman. The packaging even includes symbols and language for their market. Basically by redesigning our American ketchup bottle and filling it with a product native to another segment, Heinz was able to make massive profits and almost dominate the market. In soy sauce alone, Heinz is now the world’s second largest soy sauce. Heinz’s idea to market even further by offering ABC flavor syrups for non-alcoholic drinks for Ramadan, a Muslim celebration, was genius. This is pushing American ideas and customs into Asian homes.

Another example was Heinz’s campaign to introduce ketchup into Indonesian homes. Heinz was able to examine product usage by gathering information about demographic, geographic, and lifestyles. These aspects of product usage were that the Asian culture, mostly from Indonesia, and the products are targeted toward their religion but very busy lifestyles. An example of a religious product would be the non-alcoholic drink syrup for Ramadan… Using this information, they determined that Asia was the perfect place to push forth new products.

Companies have endless opportunities in expanding to newer markets and segments. Research, the right process, and approach will make these opportunities a reality.

Duran Inci

November 3, 2008