New Home Resolutions.

Mark and I moved to Camas, Washington from Long Island on October 30th. Since then I’ve met some amazing people in my neighborhood. I danced Thriller with them, and became a Tappin’ Santa in just two months. I’m even going to dust off my cello and learn a duet with one of them. I have some new home resolutions. To balance my life more. Make time for tap dancing and cello playing.

Thank you Lacamas Shores, and especially Sarah Canepa Bang for making me feel at home, and for inspiring me and showing me that when you have friends, the world is your oyster! Or as we’d say on Lawn-Guy-Land – Ya oystuh.

Disclaimer: Remember, the camera puts on 10 pounds and apparently I have 3 cameras on me!

“All I want is what’s coming to me. All I want is my fair share.”

I blame Sally for this recession.

The first prime-time animated TV Special based on the comic strip Peanuts aired on Thursday, December 9, 1965, preempting the Munsters and following the Gilligan’s Island episode “Don’t Bug the Mosquitoes.” Coca Cola was the sponsor and 50% of televisions in the US were tuned to this historic first broadcast. I was three.

Every year the show would air once. There were no VCRs, TiVos or Hulu.  There were only 4 stations. We were captive. We were the baby boomers and we wanted our fair share.

• Instead of saving for that new television like our parents did, we’ll charge it!
• We’ll buy a new car instead of a used car and finance 100%!

I want it NOW daddy! - Veruca Salt, from Willy Wonka

• Everyone should have a home – that’s the American dream! Even if I have to lie to get it. And I’ll use that home like an ATM so I can get the tax write-off!

Sigh…..but then Linus takes the stage and reminds us of the reason for the season:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas.

On Death & Dying: Letting Go of Traditional Marketing

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross published a ground breaking book in 1969 titled On Death and Dying.

It describes the process people go through when faced with a tragedy or catastrophic loss. I love this book. When I was in high school in the 70’s this was a text book for a class I took called Apostolic Involvement. I went to an all girls Catholic school and our assignment was to sit with two patients each day in a nursing home, hold their hand, talk, listen and then read a chapter in the book and journal our experiences. Very enlightening.

I mean this with the utmost respect, but I do believe that many marketers are experiencing these stages of grief in response to my Marketing RIP series. I revisited Kubler-Ross’ theory, and it makes sense. We’re talking about a lifetime, in some cases, of success and security using these methods. And now they are dying? Some will completely vanish? How can this be?

These worked so well for so long. Baby Boomers grew up with these. But if you want to attract the Gen Y crowd – and who doesn’t – you need to begin to move on…..I hope this helps.

The five stages of grief are:

1. Denial. This can’t be happening to me.
   1. Marketing translation (MT) – there’s no way I’m going to do anything different. So we aren’t getting the response we wanted, I’ll blame the economy. Television and Radio ads will always be around. And direct mail – c’mon. How will our members know what products we offer if we don’t tell them?
2. Anger. This isn’t fair!
   1. MT: I won awards for these marketing efforts! I have trophies in my office to prove that my radio, television and newspaper ads were winners! If we just stopped all of that marketing, we’d go under.
3. Bargaining. I’ll do anything to keep things as they were – just for a little while longer.
   1. MT: Well, I can’t just STOP all marketing. What would I do? I have to keep to my marketing calendar – but I’ll dabble in social media. When I have time.
4. Depression. I’m so sad, why bother with anything?
   1. MT: I hate Denise. I just heard yesterday that Pepsi and FedEx will not be advertising on Super Bowl Sunday – what the what? Could it be true? Is this the warning shot across the bow? I hate writing the monthly statement messages now – does anyone out there read it? Care? Life has no meaning.
5. Acceptance. I’m going to be okay.
   1. MT: I’m open to exploring this thing called Social Media. I don’t know exactly what it all means, but I’m willing to go there. The best thing about credit unions – we are willing to share and commiserate and network and help each other. I accept that things are changing – rapidly – and I need new tools in my toolbox.

NEXT: The 12 step program for recovering media-direct-mail-a-holics. Thanks to Kelley Parks for that great idea!

CU at the Watercooler for 2009 Roasts and Toasts!

I’m excited to announce that I will be co-hosting the CU Later 2009 CU Watercooler’s blog radio event on December 28th, at 10 AM PST.

Kelley Parks and Christopher Morris will be helping me recognize the best and the worst of credit union news, events, and random acts of kindness and weirdness in 2009.

We’ve also expanded this special to a full 60 minutes so we can hear from experts in our industry about what to expect for 2010.

Our distinguished guests are:

Dwight Johnston, Vice President of economic and market research at WesCorp and author of the blog DJ and the Bear.

Sally Myers, CEO of C. Myers Corporation and contributer to the C.myBlog blog. That’s fun to say. Try it.

And, Mark Meyer, CEO of the Filene Research Institute.

Love to hear who you would roast and toast for 2009!

Marketing R.I.P. – Part 4: The Death of Direct Mail aka “I’m Not Going to Be Ignored!”

I’ve received a lot of comments both online and offline about my eulogizing traditional marketing. The most common argument for continuing radio and television is that it’s affordable (in their market) and the board likes to see it. And when I speak in public about the eventual death of old marketing people get the most protective over this one – direct mail. Specifically “targeted” direct mail.

Don’t get me wrong. I used to do a lot of direct mail. We bought an MCIF just so we could household our members and track our results. But, what always bothered me when calculating my ROI math for the CFO was this:

Unless I had a coupon attached or some way of tracking that the “new” business did in fact come from the post card I just sent, how can I take credit for it? How did we know it wasn’t the great rate? Our stellar reputation? Crazy member loyalty? Or word-of-mouth that brought us all those loans? What if we didn’t mail out those post cards? Would no one come?

The USPS expects to be $7 billion in the red by year-end. They are closing offices, reducing delivery and increasing postal rates to stay afloat. The decline in mail volume as people rely more on e-mail, plus a dip in advertising mail because of the recession are the main causes. Some expect the postage stamp will quickly hit the $1.00 mark. That changes your ROI math dramatically.

A lot of marketing feels like stalking. Whenever you find yourself saying “We need to go after (insert product or type of member) you are bound to end up doing some things that feel intrusive. According to Psychiatric Times stalking is defined as:

repeated and persistent unwanted communications….such as telephone calls, letters, e-mail, and placing notices in the media.

Sounds a lot like traditional marketing, doesn’t it.

Key words. Repeated and unwanted.

Listening to a radio ad that says “That number again, 1-800…”

How about that television carny screaming at you “But wait! There’s more….”

And the piece of mail that is marked “URGENT” when in fact, it’s not.

Repeated and unwanted. Generation Y is definitely going to look at you like you’re a crazy bunny boiling lunatic if the only way you try to build a relationship with them is by showing up on their doorstep, in their car, on on their TV.  And don’t even THINK about invading their cell phone space. That would be the equivalent of dumping acid on the Volvo.

THIS JUST IN (12/17.09): Thank you to my dear friend Tom McWilliams for sending me the link to this story – USA Today announced that Pepsi will not advertise during the Super Bowl this year.  Nicole Bradley, marketing spokesperson for Pepsi said:

“In 2010 each of our beverage brands has a strategy and marketing platform that will be less about a singular event and more about a movement.”

Hmmmmm…what an interesting choice of words.

Thanks to the folks at CUSwag for sending me this picture as well. Simply titled “The joy of not being sold anything.”

CU at the Watercooler!

“Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what’s really going on inside the company.” – The Cluetrain Manifesto

Being involved in the social media arena – for me – is like riding a roller coaster. Sometimes I’ll look up at it while standing in line and think – nope – not gonna do it. But then people encourage me that everything will be fine and I get on. There are all kinds of ups and downs and twists and turns, feeling out of control, and times you just wanna scream. But when you go back to the safety of the platform, you think “Again!”

We are no longer in control of the conversation. That’s probably the scariest thing of all.

Our markets are getting smarter, faster. The CU Watercooler is the place to catch up on all the scuttlebutt. It’s a great way to understand the power of this new communication tool – social media. CU at the Watercooler!

Cutting to the Chase

I have been eulogizing the traditional marketing efforts for the last two weeks. I’ve had amazing comments online and offline. It seems that most people feel the same, traditional marketing is dying a slow and painful death – but are wondering – if I can no longer advertise on the radio or TV or in the newspaper – then what?

Well. The simple answer is. You’re going to have to pay attention to details and build business the old-fashioned way – by earning it.

The future of marketing is word-of-mouth. It’s not there yet. Not by a long shot. But it will be. Marketing had a great run. About 80 years to be exact. But for the thousands of years before the media, all products and services were marketed via word-of-mouth. It is – has been – and always will be the most effective and trusted form of advertising.

I’m taking the month of December off to re-brand myself. You’ll see a new look on my website and see a central theme emerging on this blog. I believe the future of marketing is to become the catalyst for:

Managing Moments of Truth and
Measuring Moments of Truth

Our product is service. It’s manufactured with the member/customer present.

Case in point. I have a car loan with Bank of America. I just moved from New York to Washington state. I was told by the lovely people at DMV that in order to get license plates for Washington I must contact B of A and ask them to fax a copy of the original title directly to the DMV office.

Sounds simple, right? You would be wrong. I’m not a big B of A fan to begin with and only have my car loan there because the dealer put me in that financing. I know. My bad.

First time I called B of A I tried to pay attention to the plethora of recorded options that greeted me – but when I selected from two menus and the recording continued “Press 1 for a blue car, Press 2 for a red car….” I just started hitting the “O” button and hoped. It worked. I was placed on hold for 10 minutes, got a person, a fax number – I’m golden.

Not so fast. When I tried to fax – the number just rang and rang and rang.

I called again. Having cracked the code I immediately hit the “O” button and was placed in the hold loop. Only about a 21 minute wait (I was told). In the meantime I was flipping through their site (as their on-hold message encouraged me repeatedly to do) to see if maybe I could find the right number.

Ah Ha! There’s an online chat button. Sweet. Here’s our conversation:

Bank of America has a giant marketing budget. Especially today as they try to rebuild their tarnished-greedy-tax-payer-bail-out-Kenneth-Lewis-egomaniac-management reputation. Some might think them successful because of their size. Too big to fail has changed the landscape. When it hits home – the taxpayer’s pocketbook – the rules have changed. I believe that consumers are getting ALL the power back in these relationships.

Social media is a communication tool that is shifting the power. Social media is not a marketing campaign. It’s no longer about you and your me-too products – it’s about them. Your members. They have a voice and they will use it. Some are using it as a weapon, while others are allowing their owners to speak for them.

It’s a tricky transition but one I truly feel marketing professionals need to make to stay relevant.

Stay tuned and thanks so much for reading and commenting. This is big scary stuff – we need to navigate these waters together. Otherwise it’s gonna be “Iceberg dead ahead!”

Holiday Humor Break!

When your credit union chooses a name like Innovations – you have to kick it up.

Oh man do these folks deliver. David Southall is the CEO (dude in the green scarf). Awesome.
Merry Christmas!

Marketing RIP: Part 3.5 The Yellow Pages Ad

This wasn’t originally planned for my 5 part series, but a Tweet from @jillnow got me thinking about another budget-sucker that we need to question. The Yellow Pages Ad.

Her tweet: Thinking about making a move to cut yellow pages ads. Help me out: when did you last use the phone book to find a loan? Or, well, anything?

Great question.

Here are some of the great responses:

@jrwlay, aka @cuswag: um….last time i used a phone book was when i was 8 so that i could see over the dash of the cesna plane i was flying. i am 28 now.

@morrischris: good call on the yellow pages. Money might be better spent on SEO and/or Pay-per-click ad efforts online.

@SonyaJMills: our phone books go directly to the recycling station….@morrischris is right on the $ IMO

@MKHostetler: Google is the new Yellow Pages.

@jimmymarks: I used a phone book when I was trying to kill a hornet once. YANK THAT YELLOW BUGGER OUTTA YER BUGET!

This is also a great example of the value of Twitter. Real time conversation.

Update that same day from @jillnow: Thanks for the phone book feedback! That’s $13K I can redistribute to something more fun (and effective).

Amen.

RIP Yellow Pages Ad…..

Marketing R.I.P. Part Three – Newspaper Ads

My father would get up early, make his coffee and wait for the thud of the delivery of his morning paper (shiny happy person on left is not actual dad). You could hear him swearing if it didn’t make it on the porch but rather hung from our rhododendron bush just out of reach. The newspaper boy would come around once a month to “collect” for the subscription. He rode a bike. In the rain.

Dad was a front page and business page reader. I grabbed The Jumble. We weren’t a big sports watching family so that section usually remained untouched. On Sunday that paper was spread out on the dining room table all day. Had to read the Parade Magazine, bonus! In December the Sunday edition weighed about five pounds with all the colorful pull-out ads. My generation’s version of the Sears catalog.

The Boy Scouts had newspaper drives regularly. We’d bundle up our piles with twine and take them to the grocery store parking lot.  Do they even do that anymore?

Before television the newspaper is how a story broke. Extra! Extra!

Today you’ll hear it on Twitter before the news crew can turn on their cameras.

Newspapers are failing left and right. Some are declaring bankruptcy to try and reorganize and almost all have drastically cut back on staff.

Rupert Murdoch believes that this old model is dead:

“The old business model based on advertising only is dead…..that’s not going to change even in a boom.”*

Murdoch’s plan is to “put all its entities behind a pay wall.” Or as the soup Nazi would say “No more free news for you!”

* BIG POINT: I found that quote this morning when I was reading the CU Watercooler links from yesterday. It pointed me to the online (free) version of the Washington Post’s article. Isn’t that delicious?

After the Rocky Mountain News closed in February of this year, several displaced staffers announced the development of an online, real-time local newspaper. They needed 50,000 paid subscriber pledges before they could launch. Their goal was May 4, 2009. On April 23rd they shut it down with only 3,000 pledges.

Are you still buying Newspaper ads? I know some credit unions are because it’s cheap. And if it’s cheap it’s not wasting money, right?

The bigger the ad the higher the price tag, because it was harder to avoid the thing. Think about it. People don’t BUY the paper for the ads. They buy it for the news – and now they can get that for free.

I cancelled my newspaper about four years ago. My blue recycle bin sits empty in my garage next to the green one and the grey one.

When we moved last month I had to buy packing paper because we didn’t have old newspapers lying around. So that industry will probably pick up – and someone should start a “bird cage liner” business.

RIP Newspaper ad.