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November 29, 2005
Harvard Business Review On Corporate Blogging
The HBR has written a piece entitled Does Your Company Belong in the Blogosphere?. The article states that companies that are currently blogging understand that blogs are an inexpensive way to:
* Influence the public "conversation" about your company: Make it easy for journalists to find the latest, most accurate information about new products or ventures. In the case of a crisis, a blog allows you to shape the conversation about it.
* Enhance brand visibility and credibility: Appear higher in search engine rankings, establish expertise in industry or subject area, and personalize one's company by giving it a human voice.
* Achieve customer intimacy: Speak directly to consumers and have them come right back with suggestions or complaints—or kudos.
The article goes on to provide advice from experts on how companies can realize the full potential of blogs as a communications medium.
While much of what is written has been noted repeatedly in the blogosphere, I'm sure HBR will add credibility to the argument for corporate blogging.
Posted by kpoor at 08:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google Target Marketing Case Study
The 11/21 issue of Business Week has a nice section on best practices on the Web - companies that get it (free registration required). One case study that I found interesting was how Paramount used Google to do target marketing for the release of the film Hustle & Flow. They avoided the advertsing on mainstream, massive page visit sites like MSN and Yahoo and targeted smaller music blog and fan sites. Many of the site were not even on Googles radar prior to the project with Paramount. The result - 35% of those that attended the film did so because of the internet.
After reading Shel Israel's list of 2006 predictions in the world of blogs, it seems that #4 on the list may be a group that becomes of increasing interest to advertisers that understand grassroots marketing.
Posted by kpoor at 01:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 22, 2005
Parking Marketing
Sometimes it takes just looking at something differently to spot an opportunity. Not sure if this is a trend of the future, but thought it was an interesting idea for advertising. You never know what you might see next time you park your car - Parking Stripe Marketing.
First saw this at the son-of-a-pitch blog.
Posted by kpoor at 09:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 17, 2005
Demo Marketing Blog
Niall Kennedy has created a sample product marketing blog called Scooba Clean to show how the medium can be used effectively for product marketing. This is cool. He chose a real company (iRobot) and product (Scooba)and writes from the point of view of the company in an effort to show how blogs can effectively communicate product information to consumers. In his words:
I chose iRobot because they fulfill every child's dream with robots that do your chores. Machines with a mind of their own also introduce a variety of problems for consumers who might hold off buying the product due to a lack of information about how the robot well perform in a unique home environment. I think a blog can solve a lot of these problems and put a person behind a company and its products.
A quick search on Google shows another the positive aspects of blogging, Scooba Clean is climbing the search rankings.
While Niall currently has no affiliation with iRobot, it wouldn't surpise me if we soon read that iRobot has run with this idea and permanently integrated the blog into their marketing mix.
I first read about this at a shel of my former self.
Posted by kpoor at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 15, 2005
New Dix & Eaton Blogger
Peter Jensen, the manager of our research department, has started a blog that provides a daily review of market action and discusses useful research tools and applications.
Peter writes short, insightful entries describing what has driven the market on a daily basis.
Posted by kpoor at 11:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 14, 2005
Media Trends Tell Interesting Story
Chris Anderson who pens The Long Tail blog, provides some powerful statistics on the slide of mainstream media:
Down:
* Box Office: down by 7% this year (tickets per capita have fallen every year since 2001).
* Newspapers: circulation, which peaked in 1987, is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year.
* Music: Sales are down another 5.7% this year; although digital downloads (still just 6% of the business) are climbing nicely.
* Radio: down 4% this year alone, continuing a multi-decade decline.
* Books: down by 7% in 2004 (but see comments below for discussion)
Mixed:
* DVDs: sales growth is slowing dramatically, from 29% last year to single digits this year.
* TV: Total viewership is still rising, but as channels proliferate and the audience fragments the rating of the average show continues to decline.
* Magazines: Ad revenues are up a bit although the number of ad pages is flat (they're charging more per page). Circulation is also flat, while newsstand sales are at an all-time low.
* Videogames: it's the final few months of the current generation of consoles, which tends to the trough of the buying cycle. Sales were down 20% in Sept, but will probably pick up by Christmas with the launch of the Xbox 360.
Up:
* Internet advertising:
--Banners: Up 10% this year
--Keywords: Google revenues up 96%
These numbers show trends that should be followed closely by all PR practitioners as they show a shift in the media channels that are important to consumers. These trends will continue to alter what makes an effective communications program and practitioners that fail to add new technologies and strategies to their tool chest will soon have nothing to build.
I first saw these numbers at the BuzzMachine.
Posted by kpoor at 11:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 08, 2005
47% of CEOs Think Blogs Useful for PR
A recent study by PRWeek and Burson-Marsteller shows the the following:
"About 59 percent of CEOs surveyed (131) said they find Web logs, or blogs, useful for internal communications, while 47 percent see them as tools for communication with external audiences"
While only 7 percent of the CEOs interviewed were actually bloggers themselves, the study shows that blogs are now seen as a useful channel for internal and external communications.
I would, however, like to see a breakdown of the companies interviewed for the survey. My guess is that many are in the tech sector or are smaller organizations. I think CEOs of industrial and manufacturing companies are far less familiar with blogs as a communications tool. While these numbers are encouraging in terms of adoption of this new medium, my experience tells me the numbers may be accurate for a narrow section of the business world. I hope I'm wrong.
Posted by kpoor at 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 02, 2005
Nice List of Blog Resources
Lee Odden at Online Marketing Blog has posted a useful and thorough list of resources for online marketing.
Resources are focused on SEO, RSS, blog marketing, search marketing and more. If you are looking for a starting point to learn more about these areas, this is the place. Warning - I spent an hour with this list and I consider myself up on the subject matter.
Posted by kpoor at 09:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
