What's New in Marketing - Issue 45, Jan / Feb 2006

http://www.wnim.com

Account-Based Marketing: A B2B Phenomenon

Done right, account-based marketing (ABM) ensures that marketing and sales are fully focused on a target accounts most important business issues, and that they work collaboratively to design and deliver value propositions specifically on those issues. For many companies, this is new ground.  Sales teams have been focused on finding short-term opportunities to sell existing services, while marketing has looked at longer-term market positioning and broader stimulation of demand.  So the shift to ABM is not without issues.  It requires new approaches to account prioritisation and analysis, targeted value proposition development, and integrated campaigns.   It also needs a different type of marketer – one that has strategic and tactical marketing ability plus the commercial awareness to influence experienced sales teams.  And since the stakes are high, the focus on measuring impact and demonstrating the results of ABM is razor sharp.

Following more than a year of research into this powerful new technique, please see below a six-step process for ABM (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Six-Step Process For Account-Based Marketing

1. Select your account

As the ABM trend picks up speed, we are seeing more and more of our member companies diverting resources to build marketing plans for individual clients.  But where do you place your bets? ABM is too expensive to do for every client, so how do you decide which ones are worth the time and money?

One thing is assured – the answer is almost certainly not the clients your account teams feel most comfortable with. As a question of potential future growth, the best investments may not even be today's highest-earning accounts. A useful prioritisation tool is the GE/McKinsey matrix, which can be easily adapted to plot potential in each of your target accounts. Using the criteria you decide will lead you to an objective view of each account’s relative attractiveness and your likely competitive strength.

2. Understand and analyse the account

Once you’ve identified the accounts to focus on, you need to make sure you really understand their business issues. In an ideal world this information would be in your company’s account plan but, in my experience, it usually isn’t.  So here’s where you brush up on your market audit skills – essentially, doing a market audit for your target account as if you were working there.  The goal is to come up with the business imperatives; the things that the account must do if it is to be successful in its chosen industries and markets.  Most marketers use a range of publicly available information to do this (company profiles, annual reports, investment analyst reports, market reports and trends) as well as primary research in some cases.  Hewlett-Packard refers to this as building customer insight, and during their work to rollout ABM globally it became clear that it’s the most crucial stage in the ABM process.

3. Define and select ‘plays’

The next step is to map the value you can add to the account as it addresses its business imperatives, and come up with one or more ‘plays’ or ‘value propositions’ you could sell in.   The key is to remain focused on what the account needs to achieve, and always start with its business imperatives rather than the list of ‘stuff’ you have in your kitbag to sell.  Xerox achieves this in creative workshops that combine sales and marketing personnel.

4. Build the integrated sales and marketing plan

Then its time to create an integrated sales and marketing plan – just as you would for a market or segment.  Usually there are two prongs to this: building your credibility for the new value proposition inside the account; and getting your sales people access to the buyers and influencers for that proposition.  Some of the tactics used include targeted thought leadership (on issues uncovered in your account analysis), dedicated portals or extranets, high value direct marketing, private seminars and workshops, and targeted references or case studies.

5. Execute

All of the usual disciplines of project management are needed here (critical path, milestones, clear responsibilities) plus some additional thought to how sales incentives need to be changed and how senior management buy-in is won and maintained.  It’s a collaborative effort, and a project team including sales and marketing personnel is a must.

6. Measure and review

Karen Walker, Vice President of Services Marketing at Hewlett-Packard shared some results at ITSMA’s recent Annual Conference, describing how ABM has helped her company to:

• Uncover more sales opportunities within target accounts
• Increase revenue from key accounts
• Decrease the length of the sales cycle for those accounts

The hard numbers are impressive.  Hewlett-Packard saw a 200% increase in sales funnel in their ABM accounts during the US pilot program, a 1.5-3x improvement in conversion rates, and an average increase in revenue of 16%.  In Asia, revenues jumped by more than 1000% while EMEA saw a 500% increase.  Walker suggests tracking ABM impact on three levels – first at a campaign level within each account, then at an account level, and finally at an ABM initiative level compared with other sales and marketing initiatives.

How do you get started?

ABM is the ultimate expression of the trend toward smaller and more precisely targeted campaigns. As marketers move from shotgun-style programs toward more focused initiatives, it's not surprising that some are moving all the way to individualised programs for specific accounts. At a time when anchor clients and customer loyalty are increasingly critical to long-term success, ABM offers the promise of creating deep and trusted relationships with key accounts.

About the author

Beverley Burgess is Vice President & Managing Director of ITSMA Europe and can be contacted on: Tel: 44 (0) 1892 523060  Mob: 44 (0) 7775 765722 Email: bburgess@itsma.com

Getting the most from learning platforms

The features of online learning environments

Learners need to feel in control of their learning environment, not controlled by it, so it’s important that they can customise some basic features. One way to do this is to provide a customisable homepage for every learner, giving them easy access to all the tools that they’ll need to use.

It is important that the learner can customise this space. They’re going to be spending a lot of time here, so simple controls to allow them to change things like onscreen colours and the ability to upload photos to the homepage can help foster a sense of ownership.

Just as important is a feeling of control over a programme of learning. An online calendar embedded in a personal homepage is an organisational tool that can be used to track all elements of the blend. Course moderators can prepopulate key dates, such as exams or face to face sessions and can include hyper-links to date sensitive online activities. The learner can then add to this list by including their own personal study plan, and could even add important personal events such as business trips and family birthdays. After all, these events often have an enormous impact on a success of a self-directed learner!

Finally, the platform can act as a communication tool allowing the learner to build an online support and study network. Chat rooms and discussion forums can be used to stimulate debate on current learning topics. This can help to alleviate the sense of isolation felt by many independent learners and can be a real benefit to those who are hesitant to contribute during face to face sessions. Relationships built up online during training courses can develop into important networking opportunities.

Delivering online learning content

Effective online content should be delivered in chunks of no more than 20 minutes. This can lead to an unmanageable number of learning objects, often given obscure names and held in never-ending menus. A well-organised learning platform can give structure to the whole course, without imposing rigid paths through the learning. There are a number of ways this can be implemented. Each course could have its own homepage that acts as a gateway to the learning. Alternatively, courses which use online activities as pre-work for face to face sessions could link them directly to a learner’s calendar. The platform can also clearly mark which objects have been started and completed.

Once learners get to grips with the material there are two classic offline learning techniques that a learning platform can bring to the online world: bookmarking and note-taking. Bookmarking allows the learner to mark a page within a learning object so that they can easily return to it later. Usually this is used if a learning session is interrupted, but it could be used to create lists of pages that the learner feels may be particularly useful in the future for activities such as revision.

Note-taking allows the learner to add notes to the pages they are working through. When they return to the page they can access the note again. This is particularly useful in a business environment when they may wish to reflect on how the material they are working with can apply to the workplace or could be shared with colleagues.

Supporting the online environment

A learning platform will work best when it is properly supported by a moderator. Ideally the moderator will be someone closely involved with the course, such as a tutor, rather than an IT specialist. The platform allows a moderator to keep track of learner’s progress and to support them via email. Moderators can use the discussion forums to draw out key learning points and develop points raised in face to face sessions. This aligns the online elements with other areas of the learning blend, creating links between online and offline activities.

Conclusion

Learning platforms can be used to enhance the overall learning experience and can pull together online and offline events into a coherent blended course. For this to be successful the learner needs to feel that they are in control. Learner’s time is important so the platform has to provide the tools that learners need to make sure that they get the best possible experience for every minute they spend with it. The moderator can ensure that this happens by tailoring discussions, hosting chats and personalising the online elements in line with face to face sessions.

About the author

Christopher Gritt is an E-learning Producer at Digitalbrain and has designed and developed blended and online learning programmes across the public and private sectors, including CIM’s CIM City portal and the CIM Online Professional Diploma in Marketing e-learning content.

Interactive TV campaigns

This article is mainly intended for students looking to understand the importance of interactive TV (iTV) in the UK. For practicing marketing professionals this is a niche area – at the start of 2005, according to Skymedia, there had been just 610 interactive campaigns on Sky in the UK delivered across the main commercial channels such as ITV, C4, Five and Sky. But usage is increasing, with around 100 red button campaigns delivered during 2005, mainly for car, finance and travel companies.

But perhaps interactive TV advertising should be of wider interest since this is where a lot of the innovation in digital media is happening. With higher bandwidth on the web, the execution of options available through interactive TV advertising such as simple IR, Mini-DAL and DAL act as a model for what it possible through Internet advertising.

In this short note on marketing using digital TV l hope to show how important or unimportant it is and look at some of the other evolving options for digital TV which were introduced in 2005 and we are likely to see more of in 2006.

How many people can be reached by interactive TV campaigns?

As you might expect, in terms of reach, digital TV is at least as important as the web and is showing signs of becoming more important.

MORI's Technology Tracker is a useful place to look at top level trends in consumption of digital media. If you visit www.mori.com/technology/techtracker.shtml , you will see that digital TV has grown from its introduction in 1999 to the point where it now reaches 64% of the UK population in December 2005. This actually exceeds the Internet by a small amount. Of course with the big switch to digital TV in the UK with analogue systems starting switched off from 2008, digital TV will become much more popular than the Internet. Most non-Internet users say they are not interested in it – if they were, they would be using it already.

Adoption of the Internet also varies dramatically by social group while digital TV is more similar between groups. Digital TV exceeds Internet use in the C2 DE groups as shown in the Table below. If you are trying to reach these target markets, the Internet isn’t the best way to do it.

Which types of digital platforms are being used?

Ofcom, the Office of Communications, is the best place to find out the breakdown (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/tv/reports/dtv/). It reports figures consistent with those of MORI; as at 30 September 2005 Ofcom estimated that 65.9% of UK households, received digital TV services. It shows the breakdown as follows in order of popularity:

1. Satellite, BSkyB UK – 7,472,000 households
2. Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) has become very popular in a short time – in a single quarter in 2005, there were over one million sales of Freeview set top boxes. The number of households with Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television) was 5,775,000 in mid 2005. Likely to overtake Sky in 2006
3. Cable Television – 3.3 million households have NTL and Telewest iTV services.

It is important to note in terms of reach that only true interactive ads with a response mechanism are available on Sky currently, as we will see.

Engagement with digital TV services

So the penetration of digital TV is high and getting higher, but that means nothing if people don’t click on those red button ads, so what’s the level of engagement with interactive services?

One indication is available from research by Michael Svennevig of the Research Centre For Future Communications at the Institute of Communications study in Leeds. Svennevig (2004) reviewed the relative use of the Internet and interactive TV for a range of activities. It showed that for consumers with access to both interactive TV and the web, activities performed on the web generally greatly exceeded the same activity on the TV. For example, for activities like, e-mail, search, buying products across a range of categories and servicing bank accounts, the web was at least 10 times more popular. However, there were some exceptions where TV was more popular which hint at how interactive TV will be used in the future as part of online campaigns. These activities more naturally fitted with using the TV, they included playing online games, finding background about TV programmes and voting in TV shows.

How many people can be reached through red button ads?

For potential advertisers though, the real question is how many of us press those red buttons and how many then enter our details through our handsets in response to the offer.

To understand response rates, we have to think about the different ‘return paths’ offered by the different iTV platforms above. With web marketing we take return paths for granted – you click on an ad and are taken through to a microsite where you respond as required. But return paths are one of the biggest challenges for interactive TV (along with limited bandwidth, clunky interactions, the more limited form of handsets for interaction and the sharing of the TV between a family!).

The return paths available are as follows:

1. Sky Digital – Return path available if set-top box connected to phone (this used to be mandatory for Sky installations, but isn’t any longer). The SkyDigital viewer is charged for a local or premium rate phone call which is likely to restrict adoptions

2. Freeview – Full return path not available. Viewers can respond to interactive ads by phoning or texting in their responses. They can, however, interact with interactive content

3. Cable. Although cable has the potential of an always-on return path (without requiring a phone connection), this potential has not been fully utilised to date

So you can see that in terms of response to data capture, interactive ads are only really a method of reaching the 7-8 million households that use Sky.

Red button response rate has proved difficult to measure in the past and this lack of accountability has not helped the medium. However, Zip TV ran an interesting research programme in 2005 which looked at response rates on a longer time scale (assessed through phone interviews with respondents).

The research showed that in the past 12 months (2004-5), interaction with TV adverts in the UK was 17%* (2.6m) annually of Sky Digital adults. But this still means that there is an estimated 12.7 million* strong Sky Digital audience who have bypassed IA (interactive advertising) in the last 12 months. So who are these viewers and how can broadcasters, advertisers and agencies tap into this potentially lucrative segment? On an individual campaign level, the figures are less impressive with press-red response rates typically in low single figures (1-3%). This is measured through automated dial-ups after the red button was pressed (not all users will authorise this due to cost or privacy reasons). This data tallys with that of a tracking study completed by iBurbia which showed that only 40% of respondents claimed to have seen an interactive TV ad with 25% of total having pressed red. iBurbia (http://www.iburbia.co.uk/) puts this relative failure of interactive TV ads down to four factors: continued use of interactivity as a bolt-on extra to video ads that weren't designed to support it; a confusion between the role of the red button during programming and during ad breaks; poor early experiences of interactivity among early adopters; and the gradual ageing of the installed base of Sky set-top boxes, which makes the current experience patchy.

Their Passive2Active study (http://www.passive2active.tv/) identified different types of interactors within the Sky TV base. According to the press releases accompanying the launch of the research, Emma Seymour, the Research Director at Zip Television explains: “We divided viewers into five sub groups to identify their demographics, attitudes and preferred programme genres. There was a broad spectrum of interactor types, ranging from out-and-out rejectors (‘Bitter Ad Haters’), through ‘Unengaged Passives’, to strong interactor acceptors (‘Dedicated Interacters’). But it was ‘Unimpressed Pragmatists’ and ‘Apprehensive Stargazers’ that represented the greatest potential to press red - given the right targeting and messaging. ”

Of the viewers not currently interacting: 30% the ‘Unimpressed Pragmatists’ are not pressing the red button because there are too few incentives. A further 22%, referred to as ‘Apprehensive Stargazers’, are too daunted by the prospect to interact with an ad. With increased familiarity and use of the red-button within programmes (which tends to be more popular) this suggests future potential for red-button advertising as people get more familiar with it.

Of course, actual response rates, as for any other media depend on the targeting, creative format of the call-to-action and the offer. The IDS site (see further reading) has detailed practical guidelines on effective calls-to-action and offers and response rates. As might be expected there is a wide variation in response rates with prize draws, brochure requests and samples often receiving ten times higher response rates than response that require more commitment such as donation, test drives or callback.

Options for marketing using interactive TV campaigns

The traditional model for interactive TV adverting is to use the “Red button” on TV remote control to allow viewers to interact with content specially developed for red-button. Interaction is available either while still watching their programme (more typical for direct response) or in a separate, bespoke site (more typical for branding) and they then return to programme when finished interacting.

The main options are described by Sky Media as follows

1. Direct Response Application – usually known as "Impulse Response (IR)"

This is the entry-level option which is mainly used to add a direct response element to a TV campaign. It can be used by both brand and DRTV advertisers. This is the simplest form of interactive advertising and the Sky service has these elements:

• Viewer stays with broadcast, IR overlays TV ad
• Immediate data entry
• Maximum of 9 immediate data entry fields
• Access negotiated independently with each broadcaster
• Cost around £5,200 for 28 days. There is an additional cost for data capture at around £0.10 per response).

2. Branding Site with a direct response element – usually known as "Mini-DAL (dedicated advertiser location)".

With this option, when the red button is pressed, the viewer is direct to a bespoke microsite. Benefits of this include the more detailed information and more opportunity to interact with the brand. Sky media (http://www.sky-skymedia.com/) offers these options:

• Templated solution – 3 types: Qtr screen with bespoke video, static full screen with bespoke audio, TV qtr screen
• Multiple screens in a site (up to 3) allows for detailed, additional information
• Offers branding and response
• Permanent listing on Sky Active during campaign
• Accessible from Sky,ITV,C4,C5 and IDS airtime (See http://www.idigitalsales.co.uk/interactiveadvertising/)
• Costs around £14,000 – £39,500 for 28 days

3. Bespoke Branding Site – usually known as "Dedicated Advertiser Location"(DAL)

This is the most expensive option intended to provide the advertiser with an “immersive branded environment”. This will enable virtually any form of interaction from the standard bespoke video to more interactive facilities such as playing games or listening to music and of course, direct response. Sky Media summarise the DAL facilities as follows:

• High end solution
• Offers branding and response
• Viewer leaves TV broadcast
• Totally bespoke design – a Virtual "advertiser channel"
• Sold in megabits of bandwidth
• Permanent listing on Sky Active during campaign
• Accessible from Sky,ITV,C4,C5 and IDS airtime
• Costs start around £40,000 - £65,000 for 28 days

Marketing applications of interactive TV ads

Direct response is the most obvious reason for running interactive ad campaigns. This has been used for these applications according to the IDS study of the 600 IA campaigns ran up until 2005:

• Further information – Mecca Bingo invited viewers to ‘Press Red for a free information pack’ and many travel and tourism destinations have solicited brochure requests through this mechanism
• Sampling – Brands such as Finish Dishwasher tablets, Coty Rimmel lipsticks, Wilkinson Sword Razors and Total TV Guide have used the sample request format. Results from IDS have so far have indicated that campaigns offering free samples have produced better responses
• Donation – Charities such as the Red Cross, Cancer Research UK, the National Accident Helpline and the NSPCC have used this format. Regular donations can be achieved through entering their account details
• Request a call-back – Dial 4 a Loan and Yes Car Credit have used this approach
• Request a test-drive – Car brands such as Nissan Almera, Lexus and Renault have used this approach
• Enter a competition – IDS notes that some of the highest response rates to date have been achieved with competition offers from Rimmel, Tesco and Walt Disney
• Play a sponsored game – Used by KitKat for the ‘Take a break’ campaign
• Sponsorship of broadcast programmes – reality TV and pop programmes have successfully used sponsorship combined with Mini-DALS and, of course SMS voting

When looking at the benefits of interactive TV ads, there is increasing evidence of the benefits of engaging a consumer with the brand. One of the fundamental benefits of interactive TV ads is that they extend the brand message beyond the maximum 30 seconds of linear TV ads.

Case example – Volvo ‘Mystery of Dalaro’ campaign

This is one of the best known interactive TV ad campaigns which supported the launch of the Volvo S40, shot in the style of a documentary purporting to be a real account of the Swedish village Dalaro where 32 people all bought a new Volvo S40 on the same day.

Revolution Magazine (March 19, 2004) (http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/) has revealed these details about the campaign. Spike Jonze, the director of the films 'Being John Malkovich' and 'Adaptation' as well as the Beastie Boys video 'Sabotage', made the documentary using real residents of Dalaro and not actors.

This campaign shows how offline ad executions naturally drive visitors online. During the campaign, visits to the Volvo UK website doubled and 435,000 digital viewers of the ad selected the red button option to view the documentary via interactive TV.

Those pressing red on iTV saw a longer eight minute version of the documentary, made by director Spike Jonze, featuring interviews with residents of Dalaro talking about the spooky phenomenon and had the opportunity to download brochures, thus interacting much more closely with the brand than was possible before the advent of iTV. The documentary was also available from the website which received 96,000 visits with 64% accessing the video and several thousand requesting a brochure.

Other details about results of the campaign from IDS

• 11% of viewers, who were aware the ad was interactive, pressed red
• People spent on average 6 minutes in the application
• It cost 5p for every minute someone spent in the DAL
• Spontaneous awareness amongst people who interacted was higher than those who did not (58% vs. 4%)
• Brand perception of the Volvo S40 improved immensely amongst interactors
• Those who interacted were 10 times more likely to buy a Volvo S40 than those who saw the ad but didn’t interact

Case example – Rimmel drives sampling through iTV

Think Box gives the example of Rimmel's iTV campaigns for its Exaggerate Hydra Colour Lipstick and its Double Act Foundation. This was an early (2001/2) mini-DAL campaign which was accessible via a 20-second linear commercial running on Sky and IDS digital satellite channels, or via banners in the Sky Active menu. Target channels included Sky One and Sky Movies. The brand's first red-button push attracted 52,000 requests for samples and a response rate of 3.2%. This prompted a second campaign which performed even better, with more than 60,000 sample requests and a 27% improvement in the cost per response. The cost per sample acquisition was £1.87, less than any other sampling mechanism previously used by Rimmel. This campaign not only collected names and addresses for samples but also opt-in permissions, mobile phone numbers for future SMS promotions, and other personal information. Many viewers were happy to give their permission with 38,000 opting-in to receive further marketing communications, and two-thirds giving their mobile number. Research through Dunn Humby, which matched interactors with Tesco Clubcard data, found that those who had pressed red spent 18% more on Rimmel products than those who didn't.

Case example – VEET

This 2005 ZipTV campaign asked: ‘Are you still a Wax Virgin Campaign?’ challenging the consumer to trial the product. The detailed content on the Mini-DAL was intended to reassure about the barriers to waxing by changing preconceptions that waxing is a painful, messy process. It is, in fact, quick, easy and not as painful as people think. The advert encouraged the viewer to press the red button by asking the question: ‘Are you still a Wax Virgin? Press red to enter the Veet quiz and you could try it for free.’ 10,000 samples of Veet Wax Strips were sent to interactors who took the Veet Quiz and entered their address details using their remote. The question to ask: would a higher or more cost-effective volume in the target audience be achieved through driving the viewers to a bespoke website? Across all media, Veet intended to distribute 200,000 samples.

Case example – Press Red responses

Press Red give some other examples which indicate higher response levels:

• Grolsch aimed for 15,000 responses (order a branded pint glass) over 4 weeks, but actually generated 28,000 in three days
• Seat's December 2004 campaign generated an average of 3,000 leads a week, which was some 50% more than their existing direct response marketing (combined brochure requests, test drives and prize draw)
• Skoda’s first campaign generated 15,000 brochure requests, said to be an historic direct response figure for them.

Recent interactive advertising innovations

From the 1 November 2005, New Media Age (27.10.05) reported that Sky is reducing the costs for responses to interactive campaigns. For example, IDS is now only charging £0.10 per response for any interactive TV campaign. This compares to an average of £0.50 per response collected previously which was typically estimated to be about 10% of the total cost of a red button campaign. New Media Age believes that this move could lead to more non-finance/travel/car brand companies using interactive TV advertising.

In December 2005, New Media Age reported that Nokia was going to launch an interactive TV campaign for its N70 camera phone that didn’t rely on linear TV time. Instead it will develop a presence on the Sky Active entertainment channel (not linear TV, but an interactive channel available to Sky subscribers). The move is intended to avoid the cost of linear TV ads and is based on a reported 20% of red button ad response originating from Sky Active. Nokia won’t only rely on browsers of Sky active - print ads in Sky’s subscriber magazine will be used to drive visitors to the site (and the web). Of course the benefit of this approach is that the campaign content is available 24 X 7 as well as during each 30 second spot, so the advertisers are making more use of content produced.

In January 2006, New Media Age reported that programme sponsors would be offered red button and mobile interactivity (text bounceback) to engage viewers between ad break. So watch out for more red buttons!

Next month's article

I hope you enjoyed the look into the world of interactive TV ads, next month its back to something more practical and of more interest to all marketers. I will show how to improve response to online and traditional marketing by enhancing web landing pages and microsites. Today’s most effective online campaigns don’t direct visitors to the home page, but deep-link to specific products or offers. The article will show the best way to integrate landing pages into an existing site and how to devise the creative to maximise response.

References and Further reading

Svennivig, M. (2004) The interactive viewer:Reality or Myth. Interactive Marketing. Vol 6. Mo 2, p151-64.

Digital UK (http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/) Details of UK switchover.

IDS (Interactive Digital Sales) (http://www.idigitalsales.co.uk/interactiveadvertising) – has a good explanation of services available through its UKTV network of channels and more general research.

2005 interactive advertising survey from IDS: (http://www.idigitalsales.co.uk/interactiveadvertising/survey.cfm)

Interactive Advertising study:

http://www.idigitalsales.co.uk/content/lowdown/documents/IAApr05.pdf

New Media Age (http://www.nma.co.uk/) coverage of new approaches and campaign examples in digital TV and other media.

Passive2Active study (http://www.passive2active.tv/) research about interaction from Zip Television (http://www.ziptelevision.com/).

Press Red (http://www.pressred.tv/) one of the main creators of Red Button ads.

Sky Media (http://www.sky-skymedia.com/) Overview of red button approach and costs.

Thinkbox (http://www.thinkbox.tv/) is the television marketing body for all the UK commercial broadcasters and includes case studies of conventional and interactive TV ads.

Weapon 7 (http://www.weapon7.com/) Another specialist interactive TV ad house.

About the author

Dr Dave Chaffey is workshop leader for a range of one-day e-marketing training workshops from the CIM:

• E-mail Marketing (www.cim.co.uk/0766)
• Running Effective E-marketing Campaigns (www.cim.co.uk/0767)
• Improving Your Results from Digital Marketing (www.cim.co.uk/1138)
• Marketing Research Using the Internet (www.cim.co.uk/1135)

Go to http://www.cimtraining.com/ for course details and online booking.

Dave Chaffey is trainer and consultant for Marketing Insights Limited (http://www.marketing-insights.co.uk/). He is a prolific e-business author whose books include ‘Total E-mail Marketing’, ‘Internet marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice’ and E-business and E-commerce Management.

Read Dave Chaffey’s blog (http://www.davechaffey.com/) for E-marketing Essentials – the 5 “must-read” articles about online marketing from the hundreds Dave reads each month.

Changing how you manage customers

Companies have managed relationships with customers – and vice versa - long before customer relationship management (CRM) became a popular term. Customers are managed in many ways – from explicit management of named customers (as in direct marketing) or implicit management of customers (as in FMCG brand management, in which customers are managed by a combination of product, packaging, advertising, sales promotion, merchandise display and so on). In the latter case, although customers might be managed directly (e.g. if they respond to a sales promotion), normally they are managed in groups, or market segments. Nor is the idea of customers managing relationships with suppliers new. Customers have done this for years – whether in deciding which stores to visit, which advertisements to watch, listen to or read, which products to buy, or which direct marketing contacts to respond to.

Generally, in each market, a “model of customer management” emerges, in which suppliers and customers manage each other in a particular way. Each competitive player makes similar assumptions about the relative effectiveness of different elements of the marketing mix for this model. A market is described as one in which, for example, “brand management”, mail order”, “key account management”, “territory selling”, “mass market retailing” is the normal method by which suppliers and customers interact. Note that models of customer management often vary by industry or sector. Particular tools and techniques are used by suppliers, while customers respond or take the initiative in particular ways. Of course, at any one time, some suppliers and customers might be more proactive in how they manage each other, others much less so. It is one of the marketer’s main functions to appraise the situation and decide which marketing mix elements will work best and most cost-effectively, given the norms of customer management for the product and market.

There is, of course, no single model of customer management that works well in every market, or even a single model that is best in a particular market. Which model works best in a particular market at a particular time depends on many factors e.g. customers’ propensities to manage or be managed in different ways (and whether there are groups of customers with strong preferences for particular models), suppliers’ strengths and weaknesses, the state of customer management technology. However, there may be one or two models that work best for most or most of the valuable customers in a particular market at a particular time. Spotting which models these are, and making sure that the company can work them well, is a marketing director’s responsibility. Now comes the crux. Where the optimum model does not change much, this part of the marketing director’s job is relatively easy. It’s when it changes that there’s a problem that demands the tools of scenario planning to solve it.

To understand this, let us examine the rise of the idea of the CRM model. For years, marketers were brought up (even educated) to believe that models such as consumer goods branding, retail marketing and sales force management were timeless models, that would work for ever. Along came the idea of CRM with the claim to replace or substantially supplement these tried and tested ways of doing business. On what did CRM base its challenge? There were three main factors.

The first was the change in companies’ capability to manage customers, occasioned by rapid advances in information and communications technology. This made a whole range of tasks much easier – typically transforming them from what had been manual or one-off operations into ones that could be carried out easily, sometimes automatically. Examples included:

• Advances in database and data access technology, allowing data about large numbers of customers to be held more cheaply, accessed more quickly and updated more accurately and securely
• Advances in customer interface technology (e.g. in contact centres, on the web, using mobile technologies, rise of interactivity), enabling interactions with customers to be managed more easily, cheaply and in a more friendly manner, and allowing data arising from the interactions to be transferred to the relevant database more securely
• Advances in analysis software, allowing the patterns of customers’ enquiries, responses and purchases to be understood more easily
• The web, which allowed customers to access companies much more easily, give data about themselves and select products

The second factor was the rapid change in customer behaviour prompted by new customer-interface technologies – again in contact centres and on the web. Customers became much readier to give data, even update it themselves, but also more concerned about the accuracy of the data and the uses to which it was put. Other developments reinforced these trends. They included:

• Media developments, particular the arrival of new media and fragmentation of existing media (press, TV), giving customers far more choice of media (which they exercised), requiring companies to know their customers better and understand their behaviour in order to be able to spend advertising money wisely
• Social trends - more confident consumers who demanded to be treated better, and who were less loyal because exit was easier

The third factor was learning by both sides of the market – customers and suppliers - about what was possible, how to make it happen, and also how to avoid dealing with companies or customers that one did not want to do business with.

The problem that all this poses for marketing directors is the certainty that CRM is not the last evolution of the sales and marketing wheel. CRM is simply another model of customer management, used in many different ways by different types of company in different sectors. Therefore, as part of marketing scenario planning, a company should keep under review the different models of customer management that may not but could exist in their market, or that are currently minority models, and work out.

1. Why technological, sociological or market conditions might lead to one or other model (or combination of models) of customer management being more or less favoured
2. Where their own company stands in relation to this model or these models model – how its current model(s) compare with it, the company’s ability to change to other models
3. How it might change to use one or more new models – including using the resources of business partners, including outsourcing.

There are many implications of all this for senior marketing managers. They include:

• Understand your customers and their propensities to use interactive marketing technologies and channels to change what, when, how and from whom they buy
• Understand that you get the customers you deserve. If you have been slow to adopt interactive marketing approaches relative to your competitors, then your particular customer base is likely to be skewed towards customers with low propensities to adopt them too. Leaders attract leaders, laggards attract laggards. Being at one end or other of the spectrum is not necessarily good or bad – it depends where the type of customers YOU want lie, and whether your marketing proposition is attuned to them
• Keep a close watch on changing propensities and competitive actions. Don’t copy them slavishly, but do understand their implications for you
• Build scenarios of model evolution, and consider how your company can achieve competitive domination by being either the faster and/or the best to exploit evolving models. If you are a market leader, consider how you can influence model evolution, and if you are a challenger, consider how you can use different models to attack incumbents
• Integrate this analysis and planning with your business strategy and marketing planning. It’s this that separates the winners from the losers

Health warning

Remember - the biggest barrier to successful change is failure to deploy change management techniques. When companies do deploy them, the change is much more likely to be successful and profitable. But such success is rare in marketing. Marketers are not very good at managing change, but when they do it well, it works. One reason for this is that marketing training never focuses on change management, but more importantly marketers are rarely exposed to good change management practice, and even more rarely rewarded for achieving high quality change. Their rewards are much more related to the success with which they deploy their existing marketing mix. This is all very well in companies where the way marketing is done does not change much. But in companies where changing regulation, technology, and markets force constant changes to how marketers need to work, it’s very dangerous. Final conclusions: marketing directors, be honest about your own change management record, consider whether you’re going to need more change management expertise, and if so, make sure you’ve got the right skills in your team – whether by hiring or training.

About the author

Merlin Stone recently parted company with IBM and is Director of WCL, specialists in change management in the public and private services. Merlin is also Director of The Database Group Ltd and NowellStone Ltd.

You have to print a packet or two….

Print may have been around in England since William Caxton printed the forerunner of the holiday time share certificate, an “indulgence” or reduction in the time that the holder had to spend in purgatory, but it has certainly come a long way since Caxton’s flat bed wooden hand-press, and with increasing technology comes ever more complex options and techniques to consider.

The virtual marketplace may have been cited as a major way of cutting production costs and opening up new opportunities but even that has its e-elephant traps and there are still times when only a mailing will do. Sometimes it’s crucial to produce information or a promotional folder that a current or prospective client can actually hold in their hands and not only see but physically feel the quality of the offer. So with margins being squeezed from every side it is more important than ever to ensure that you are getting the best deal from your print company, without sacrificing quality.

Unlike the in-house ability to design and post up web pages or organise an e-mailing, print has traditionally been a commodity that has been outsourced – from its dirty smelly heavy industrial days through to the high tech computer-controlled printing presses of today. So with print something that goes on elsewhere and that you may not see until completion, how can you be sure that you’re asking the questions that need to be asked to get the results and the price that you want?

The first question to ask any print company has to be “do you own your own presses?” Counter-intuitively, the best answer from a client’s point of view is frequently “No.”

If you are dealing with a print management company that has a whole raft of tried and trusted suppliers with which it deals, rather than a print company which is proud of its one all-singing all-dancing state of the art press, then you can be sure that the right machine will be sourced for the right job. A simple good quality two or three colour job can be run on a straightforward press and a complex job will be found the right high tech solution. The advantages are not only reliability – using the right machine for the right job will put far less strain on the presses – but also cost savings as running costs for the right press may be far less than for the machine that the printer claims as his pride and joy.

Plus, if the worst happens and a press breaks down then a print management company will always “know a man who can” rather than want to wait for costly repairs to be carried out.

The second question for many marketers has to be “does size really matter?” Increasingly the answer is very definitely yes. For example, Affinity Print Management recently produced a folder for a client and suggested that by reducing the finished size by a mere 3mm the job could be printed on a smaller overall paper sheet. This ensured that it was not only considerably less expensive but also reduced waste – all without undermining the quality or the overall look of the product.

And, with “pricing in proportion” appearing on the horizon, it is definitely time to look very carefully at the size of mailings if companies are to avoid a postage price hike. Affinity has calculated that a company sending two million direct mail items a year could face an extra cost of around £35,000 (3.5 pence per item) if just half of that were affected. But that price rise could be avoided and, with sound advice, pricing in proportion can instead be used to bring costs down for direct marketers. Using expertise such as our own to conduct a mail audit a company’s direct mail is analysed, campaign by campaign, looking at the return on investment there would be under the new pricing in proportion scheme, assessing the options for change and drawing up an action plan whether that be changing the size or weight of individual mailings or simply asking for a very specific delivery product from Royal Mail or an alternative supplier.

But, by far the most important question is simply “how much time do you have to spend on print?” If, like most marketers, your time is more effectively used in attending to your clients – whether internal or external – drawing up campaigns, strategies and copy and, of course, ensuring that you are abiding by the multiplying laws and regulations then you need an ally if you are to commission quality print at the right price. The most effective answer is to develop a good relationship with a print management company who can work across your organisation. Your print management contact will not only source the best supplier for each job on your behalf and give you the benefit of cost savings on paper through considerable buying power, but also act as your advocate – having the complex technical discussions with printers, acting as your brand guardian to ensure consistency across all of your various jobs and also spotting opportunities that you may not even know are there.

For example, for the client whose folder was reduced by a mere 3mm in size saving them a quarter of the cost we highlighted the opportunity to “piggy back” print some promotional events cards that were required elsewhere in the organisation at the same time as the folder, printing on what was effectively going to be waste. The cards were printed at next to nothing and produced on a higher quality paper stock than was budgeted, giving better quality at a lower price than planned. It was achieved simply because there was a single print management contact working across the organisation, able to ensure that all print jobs were managed effectively.

Print may not be seen as the most glamorous aspect of the marketing mix, but for those who are truly passionate and knowledgeable about print the opportunities to produce cost savings without sacrificing quality, indeed in many cases improving it, are myriad. I have previously managed to save a massive £350,000 per year on one client’s £3 million print spend, and certainly if you get it right your print management company should secure you at least a 10% saving on your print costs, even after the typical 10% management fee.

So if you don’t know the answer to all the questions, then perhaps you should ask someone who does and bolster your brand integrity at the same time as trimming your costs and freeing up your own time to concentrate on the creative or strategic elements of your business.

About the author

Richard Evans is chief executive of Affinity Print Management, for more information please call: 01923 721860

Top 10 Tips – Branding made simple!

Developing a strong and consistent brand can add value to your business in much the same way as any other asset would do. It will also help you build trust with your customers and ultimately generate sales and profit. However, it needn’t be as difficult as you think!

Here are 10 Top Tips to show that branding is more than just developing a logo.

1. Put your customers first - identify who they are and find out what is important to them. Work out what motivates them to think they need your product or service. You should then look at matching your products and services to satisfy these needs.
   
   
2. Brand identity – This is what you stand for, what you promise your customers and the associations you create to help your customers think of you. Then communicate in plain language what makes your company unique and use every opportunity to reinforce these values as it will help your customers when making decisions about what they are going to buy – before they buy it.
   
   
3. Positioning – think about how you want to be thought of against your competitors? High quality or cheaper prices? This will need to be reflected in your marketing. Think about the message, copy and images and materials you use as they will all say something about your brand to your target audience. If you want to convey quality then demonstrate this in things such as paper, photographs and graphics – all these will ensure that your communications have maximum impact.
   
   
4. Keep it simple – When thinking about names and straplines, avoid acronyms. Come up with short and memorable words and phrases. Where possible include the name and strapline in every piece of communication and even in basic functions such as telephone answering or email signatures.
   
   
5. Involve all staff – they are your greatest ambassadors or your worst saboteurs! Keeping them in the loop, encouraging them to get involved and to make suggestions can only strengthen the perception of the brand in your customer’s eyes if all staff offer a united and consistent front. Ensure there is consistency of service at every touch point so that your customers have confidence in you.
   
   
6. Develop a brand plan – working out some positive actions in the short, medium and long term will ensure you protect your asset and reap the rewards. Don’t passively accept outside influences that harm your brand. Management should be a daily and ongoing activity.
   
   
7. Consistency – develop simple guidelines so that everyone (inside and outside your company) can apply the brand in the same way. Consistency is king. Then repeat, repeat and repeat again. Doing this will ensure that customers and potential customers will develop a familiarity with your brand.
   
   
8. Different media – ensure that through the brand guidelines your identity can work across different media such as newspapers, radio, print, website and email marketing. Ensure things like size and colour of your logo are managed vigorously as it only takes a second to undo all your good work.
   
   
9. Review – carry our regular checks to ensure your brand is being applied consistently. Offer training to deal with any problems as they arise. Nip the issues in the bud to avoid long term damage.
   
   
10. Involve the professionals - DIY brands do not look good and are costly to sort out at a later date. Avoid penny pinching in the early stages to save you time and money in the long run!

About the author

Steve Bishop MCIM DipM CHARTERED MARKETER

Nutshell Creative Marketing

07833 100 979

How to Get Visitors to Fall in Love With Your Website

Cast aside your self help books and forget about “The Rules”, if you want to get people to fall in love with your website there are three simple things that you need to do.

Rather like catching Mr Right which requires you to secure a first date, look good when you meet and get him to ask you out again; seducing your website users involves a similar process. You need to attract visitors to your site, design it in a way that will appeal to them and encourage them to purchase from you.

Attracting Visitors to Your Site

With 12 billion web pages in cyber space and 90% of internet users relying on search engines to find them, it’s not surprising that so many website owners try and attract visitors to their sites via the search engines.

However, simply appearing somewhere in the search engine listings isn’t enough to get you the traffic you need. After all, the majority of search engine users only look at the first two pages of results which means that if your site does not appear there, chances are it will not be found.

Therefore, the real trick of attracting visitors to your site is to optimise (or market) it effectively in order to try and achieve a high search engine ranking.

Appealing Site Design

There’s really no point in getting people to your website if it is so unappealing that they leave the moment they have arrived. If you want to get people to fall in love with your site, then you need it to look good.

This means that you should have logical and user friendly navigation and not clutter your pages with too much content. Also, try and think carefully about the colours you use and how a visitor would react to them. For instance, try and avoid using a light coloured font on a white background, as this makes text very difficult to read.

Encouraging Purchase

Encouraging purchase is all about explaining your products’ benefits clearly and then asking for the sale.

One of the most effective ways of doing this is by focusing on their advantages rather than simply on their features.

For instance, tell visitors that your product will save them time and money, and will make their lives more comfortable. Paint a vivid picture using words like "imagine"and "wouldn't it be nice if...” so that they can visualise the benefits it could bring them. Then finish with a strong call to action such as, “Call now to reserve yours!"or "Order today!"

About the Author

Victoria Selman is the founding director of SEMS Consultancy: an internet marketing consultancy specialising in bespoke website design and promotion solutions. For more information visit: http://www.semsconsultancy.co.uk/