The Marketing Chefs is an educational
consulting group dedicated to helping small business owners
and independent professionals significantly improve their marketing
results. We're also avid foodies who enjoy sharing our love
of cooking, which is why we offer
a variety of one-day workshops that combine marketing lessons
with cooking lessons.
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Wed Min - Using Consumer Insights and the Internet to Build a Competitive Edge
WEDNESDAY ~ February 17, 2010
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers.
Dominos recently launched a pizza tracker service. You can phone in your order or place it online. You can monitor its progress right up to delivery at your door. Sceptics thought it would not be a point of advantage - but over 1 million consumers used it in the first two months and 28% of consumers get online and check the status.
Wed Min -- Online Web Applications - G2Web20.net And Google Buzz
WEDNESDAY - February 24, 2010
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to challenge you to consider the new application called Google Buzz, launched last week, it appears to have lots of similarities to Twitter and Facebook , the question is how can you use this tool and will you change from Facebook or Twitter embracing Google Buzz.
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to inform you about a small internet tool called a Favicon.
So what are Favicons? A Favicon is a multi-resolution image included on many professional websites. Within Internet Explorer the Favicon is displayed on the Address line and in the Favorites menu. The Favicon allows you to further promote your web site, and to create a more customized appearance within a visitor's browser. Often, the Favicon reflects the look and feel of the web site or your organization's logo.
In web design, Favicons play a somewhat similar role to your company's logo. It is displayed on every page of your website next to the address-bar among other places .
A customer favicon adds individuality to your website. If a website does not have a custom Favicon, then the default icon of the browser is displayed instead. This can be seen as missed opportunities to promote your own brand. Instead of displaying your company's icon next to its website, you are displaying the browsers icon.
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to inform you about PC World's Review on hot new website services that will matter in 2010.
For a long time, the Web had a dearth of premium TV shows and movies to choose from. These days, video is moving online in a big way: Soon we'll have a critical mass of content, equal parts current and popular video, and the long-tail stuff that we want to be able to search for and find when we think of it. The problem is, all of this video is spread out over a billion places on the Web, much of it hard to locate.
Users need a good central directory to bring it all together, and Clicker does the best job. The site finds the locations of the video you want to watch, and links you directly to it.
The reach of Clicker's search is impressive. The site has links to current and popular videos at sites like Hulu and TV.com, but you can find less-mainstream stuff, too. I punched in "Andy Griffith," and Clicker found 125 episodes (in high quality, not YouTube) from around the Web. I think lots of people will discover this site in 2010.
Wed Min - Show Us Your Goodness Campaign Status and Tips on Facebook Fan Pages
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to update you on the Show Us Your Goodness Campaign and tips on Facebook Fan Pages.
As many of you know we are in the final stage of the Show Us Your Goodness campaign. Nominations are in - we received over 2500 which exceeded our goal of 900 - thank you every one that submitted.
We have screened the submissions and we have now created the short list of 33 charities to receive funding. Now, we have the People's Pick award implemented where we get everyone to vote for the charity they think should win. It started on March 16th. We are looking forward to the voting - we have about an equal number of US and Canadian charities and we are not sure who will win as there are so many great options.
I have attached some notes on things we tried on our Facebook Fan page to generate buzz and now I hope voting can create more buzz for our program and riceworks. I hope you enjoy the article and voting.
Wed Min - Should Your Company Name Be Part of Your Title Tag?
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about title tags and if your company name should be part of your title tag.
As many of you have heard us say in our TMC workshops just fixing the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and appreciable differences to your rankings. And because the words in the title tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page, changing them may result in more clickthroughs.
But Does your Company Name Belong in the Title Tag?
After much discussion and research we have concluded that the answer is a resounding YES! We've found that it's fine to place your company name in the title, and even to place it at the beginning of the tag! In fact, if your company is already a well-known brand, we'd say it's essential. Even if you're not a well-known brand yet, chances are you'd like to be. The title tag gives you a great opportunity to further this cause.
This doesn't mean that you should put *just* your company name in the title tag. Even the best-known brands will benefit from a few good descriptive phrases added, because they will enhance your brand as well as your search engine traffic. The people who already know your company and seek it out by name will be able to find you in the search engines, and so will those who have never heard of you but seek the products or services you sell will also find you as well. Enjoy the article on the subject I know I did.
Wed Min - An Application of Technology That Could Change Your Shopping Habits
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about an application of technology that could change your shopping habits.
Many of you know of Cisco and often in the light of business to business technology. Today's video is fun and quite amazing when you think of the potential. I know I won't be shopping quite the same way and imagine if we can adapt the garment changing tool to our own computer at home. It would make online shopping soar. I have to admit the technology has been around in hair salons now it has come into retail. Fun to think about and another new advertising channel for us all to consider in our bag of tricks.
Wed Min - A New Marketing Sampling Tool - Flavour Strips
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about a new A New Marketing Sampling Tool - Flavour Strips that could change your shopping habits.
Now last week I told you about the future of clothes shopping this week it is about trying new food and beverages. Now we are all use to fragrance strips being in magazines and handed out at the mall but how abut flavour strips. They are an amazing way to cost effectively create product trial and build brand equity. They have many applications in mailing pieces, in magazines and or at media and sampling events.
If you have a product that might be too costly to sample via direct response or perhaps it might even be a beverage alcohol product now you have First Flavour strips. I like the product and I like that they have used a great tongue and cheek approach to promoting their brand in this week's video.
The product is quite good I had the pleasure of trying them last fall at a new product flavour conference. The applications are endless and they are quite affordable as a marketer.
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about a TV Viewing Habits on the Internet.
The attached article gives some pretty definitive statistics about the Millennial target audience's TV viewing habits. What I find interesting is the to do or not to do advertising points of view within the editroial. Many of us know that ad budgets have moved to the Internet. The challenge is do we use a banner ad or adword campaign and are they effective?
I have also attached a video that went viral with over 9 million views and it is advertising with soft sell. We hear these success stories all the time but forget that millions of dollars are spent online with many advertisers obtaining numbers like 50-60 views a day. For a local outdoor decking company with a narrow target audience like condominium owners (www.designerdeck.com ) this may be great traffic with high conversion numbers and very low bounce rates,
But it is important to keep in mind that like the millennial we control the word of mouse and not everyone is anxious to participate and view your creative unless it is done right with a great understanding of the end user.
Wed Min - Personality Traits of People and Their Media Habits
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about personality traits of people and their media habits.
I was reading a newsletter this week that identifies some fun personality traits of people and their media habits. I enjoyed the article and wanted to share it with you. The question that came to my mind was do I fit better in the media maniac definition or was I a social online butterfly? How about you are you a Joe Watcher or Broadcast receiver.
As to my brand orientation well I love brands. If you want to learn more you can click on the link and get the full report. Enjoy I know I did.
Wed Min -- Search Engine Optimization And Getting to the Top of Google
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about search engine optimization and getting to the top of Google Page Rank.
It is a recommendation to read this report. It's free and worth reading. It summarizes everything about search engine optimization (SEO) that you need to know to rank well in Google. I wish I had it three years ago when I started learning this stuff. You don't have to buy anything and it is a great, easy to read report that helps you analyze what you are doing well and what you need to do to optimize your website. Enjoy the article I know I did.
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about Online Article Marketing.
It is a recommendation to read this report. It's free and worth reading. It summarizes everything about search engine optimization (SEO) that you need to know to rank well in Google. I wish I had it three years ago when I started learning this stuff. You don't have to buy anything and it is a great, easy to read report that helps you analyze what you are doing well and what you need to do to optimize your website. Enjoy the article I know I did.
Wed Min - Generating Small Business Customers with Social Media Marketing
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about Small Business Case Studies and the use of Generating Customers with Social Media Marketing. As many of you may know Hubspot is a great online resource and I often use their free tool called hubspot grader to evaluate a website. They also do lots of online webinars for free. This week I signed up for a workshop and they provided me with this great report on small business and social media success. Some of the key chapters cover how blogs can drive small business leads, or how social media support can offline marketing activities. There is a lot of great content along with case studies. Enjoy the article I know I did.
Wed Min - A Winning Video Submitted in a School Competition
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about a Winning Video Submitted in a School Competition. AARP created this contest to see what people 18-30 thought about being 50. This video was created by a Georgia State University student Jonathan Reed, and it came second in the competition but to date has had over 11 million views. It is simple but very impactful and gives hope to all us that are 50 and have had some second thoughts about Generation Y.
Wed Min - Google Alerts to Monitor Your Online Company's Presence
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about Google Alerts.
Google offers a free service called "Google Alerts" that marketing professionals can use to monitor the presence of their company online. The services emails you when new web pages are published that are relevant to the search you enter for the alert. It will not catch every single new web page, but it does catch a lot of them, especially the ones from better known websites. For a huge company with a global brand, this service might not work well, since there is probably a lot of content created using your company or brand name. But for a smaller company with fewer mentions or coverage, it works great.
The attached article tells you how to set up your Google Alert account as well as some tips and tricks in monetizing your online presence.
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about The Value of Testimonials in Marketing and some tips to get you thinking about how you can improve the one's you might be using on your website. A quick review of some the tips, showed me that it is a lot more complicated and important than I had initially thought.
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about Campbell's Soup Repositioning Exercise.
For many of us that have grown up on Campbell's Soup it is hard to believe that this market leader would have to take drastic measure to re-vamp their product line. But like many established brands with significant market share you can be vulnerable to market trends like lower sodium and all natural or competitors like Progresso in the US or new in Canada from the UK Baxter's Soups. The attached article gives a brief overview of how Campbell's tackled this herculean task and the net outcome. I enjoyed the perspective but also found it helped me take some different thinking to how I might approach some of the brand initiatives I have been working on.
Wed Min - Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert and His New Product Evaluation
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert and his new product evaluation process. I follow Phil for new product ideas and for his team's impression on new product entries on a weekly basis. I have to admit I am sometimes sceptical about his suggestions but have found his approach based upon a score of 100 to be interesting. The reviews open my mind to new products and what works and what doesn't. I thought you might enjoy signing up to see what the next new product or trend might be in your market.
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about Social Media Success Stories.
The attached article summarizes 10 and one half great social media success stories. Key learning from the article are:
• There's no right way or wrong way to engage
• Everything comes down to listening
• If you don't follow through, forget it
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about an online resource tool that I use to help me understand different aspects of how the Internet works. It is called SPNVideos and there are 40 video channels dedicated to topics of interest to webmasters.
To get started I selected a video on Google analytics with Patrick Schwerdtfeger on understanding Google Analytics I found it very inciteful and you can also order his book webify for free if you find the video engaging and of help.
There are over 1700 videos on the SPNVideo site and you too can add your own if you feel you have a topic people might like to learn about. Check it out.
Wed Min - Social Media Success Story For The Old Spice Brand
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about It's about a social media success story for the brand Old Spice and The Shulton Company, the original producer of Old Spice.
The first Old Spice product was a fragrance called Early American Old Spice for women, introduced in 1937. Old Spice for men followed in 1938. The early men's products were dominated by shaving soap and aftershave lotion, marketed with a nautical theme.
Procter & Gamble purchased Old Spice from the Shulton Company in June, 1990. The clipper ship was replaced by the yacht logo in February, 1992. In the late 2000s, Old Spice was well known in the USA for their jingle, a catchy whistle used in just about every Old Spice commercial. However, Old Spice had an up and down sales history until just recently.
P& G hired TV pitchman Isaiah Mustafa, a former NFL player and restaurateur to be the hot new Old Spice Guy. I have included the video of his TV spots. Well, the creative took off and on July 14th, 2010 Old Spice set up Isaiah in a bathroom with a video camera and had him reply to hundreds of comments and questions that were pouring in via Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and other social network platforms. Within 24 hours there were 181 video replies which had received a total of 6,703,414 views, propelling the Old Spice YouTube channel up to the most viewed channel of the day.
What I like about this case study is it demonstrates re-positioning of a brand and then how to use an integrated media campaign to reach your target audience in a meaningful and humourous way.
Wed Min - Branding and Examples of How We Can Brand Canada
It's Wednesday, so it's time for the Wednesday Minute - the weekly audio tip for marketers. This week I am going to tell you about Branding and Examples of How We Can Brand Canada.
On the heels of Canada Day, the attached video reached my desk and is the fun creation of two local artists Julia Bentley and Andrew Gunadie. In less than two days they met, created, shot and posted this fun video on You Tube. They are looking for our support and have asked that we forward their video to our family and friends. It is so cute I could not resist. It also reminded me of an article I read in the National Post on Canada Day about our branding and lack their of. I happened to be in Ottawa that day for the launch of the how riceworks better event and I was surprised by how the thousands of Canadians that showed up on Parliament Hill in their red and white were not lacking in their comprehension of our Canadian branding.
I also want to point out in this week's Wednesday Minute another wonderful Canadian brand that of Icewine from The Ice House Winery. I marvel at how visitors come to Canada demanding our Maple Syrup and I wonder why Canada has failed to monetize our Icewine Industry. Did you know it takes 7 times more grapes to make icewine and that we are the only country in the world that can consistently make it. In fact, the Icehouse Winery is the only winery in Canada to be selected and win the Monde Selection Gold.
To help them on the map to success and being part of Canada's brand identity we created an Icewine slushy food pairing with Salsa Fresca riceworks, wrote a press release and there you go within 24 hours we had 23,900+ impressions and 354 reads telling people about our great idea.
I have included the release in this audio note and I want to remind you that The Ice House Winery has set up a special tour for visitors on July 28th in the afternoon between 4-6 PM. For those of you looking to get to know Canada better and what our brand stands for we looking forward to seeing you at the Ice House Winery. In fact you can stop by any day. We are just having a special event on that particular day to toast Canada with Ice wine and riceworks gourmet brown rice crisps - both uniquely Canadian treats.
Enjoy the video and the press release I am always amazed at how the Internet works.
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