Marketing in Real Life

Response, LLC and Chadwick Martin Bailey were recently the recipients of an award from the CT Chapter of the American Marketing Association for their work with Stanley-Bostich in 2008. Working in partnership, the team was able to proviode strategic direction across multiple channels that was immediatley put into action by the client. "Every single page of that final research report went to our key business leaders, and was used in the goal deployment process," said Todd Langston, Director of Brand Management at Stanley-Bostitch. “It has been extremely impactful in all areas of the company, from product management and sales to engineering, operations, and even finance.” For CMB, working with Carolyn Walker and her team was an excellent experience and we look forward to working with Response again soon to deliver great client results. In addition to the Stanley-Bostitch research, Response also won awards for their trade show, web/interactive and print work. Congratulations, C...

We're excited to invite you to join us for the first session in our free 2009 webinar series. In this session Rich Schreuer, an SVP here at Chadwick Martin Bailey, will be delivering an encore of his presentation from IIR's 2008 Market Research Event. Topic: Inside Out Branding: How to Avoid the Brand Death Spiral featuring a Toyota Financial Services Case Study You'll learn: What the brand death spiral is and how to avoid it Tips for measuring brand delivery at each customer touch point and its impact on the bottom line How Toyota Financial translated the research findings into tactical action plans Time and Date: April 3, 2009 Noon ET Registration: Register via webex here.

We've been doing a lot of work helping companies like Neiman Marcus and Hilton HHonors get the most out of their loyalty programs and spent a good part of last week debating the merits of meritocracies (you give more, you get more) vs. democracies (everyone gets the same benefits) and the correct use of hard (physical rewards/cost savings) and soft (special treatment) benefits. So I was intrigued by my waiter at TGI Friday's this weekend when she introduced me to their new "Stripes" program by explaining both the hard - a free appetizer for every $30 spent - and soft -an introductory of a one-time "cut the line" pass. Needless to say, I am now a member and looking forward to jumping the line to get my free appetizer. I just hope I have the chance to earn more VIP benefits with my wings and fingers! Especially in this economy, its really important to build programs that actually drive incremental dollars. I have to assume Friday's spent the time and money...

Over the weekend I noticed and more and more McCafe's popping up within my local McDonald's and am curious (cough, skeptical, cough) whether or not this can possibly work. Starbucks has done such a good job over the last few years of teaching the public that a latte requires the love and care that only Starbucks' Baristas or local coffee houses can provide in making a high end coffee that I barely trust Dunkin Donuts to make a latte correctly (and I love Dunkin in a not so healthy way!). What I certainly don't trust is that the 14 year olds who currently make a breakfast sandwich an iffy proposition care enough to even attempt to make my drink correctly. Maybe I have become a coffee snob, but I see the McCafe winding up in a room somewhere with salad McShakers and McPizzas.

Over the weekend I noticed and more and more McCafe's popping up within my local McDonald's and am curious (cough, skeptical, cough) whether or not this can possibly work. Starbucks has done such a good job over the last few years of teaching the public that a latte requires the love and care that only Starbucks' Baristas or local coffee houses can provide in making a high end coffee that I barely trust Dunkin Donuts to make a latte correctly (and I love Dunkin in a not so healthy way!). What I certainly don't trust is that the 14 year olds who currently make a breakfast sandwich an iffy proposition care enough to even attempt to make my drink correctly. Maybe I have become a coffee snob, but I see the McCafe winding up in a room somewhere with salad McShakers and McPizzas.

Here at Chadwick Martin Bailey , we recently conducted some really interesting research in partnership with MetLife to really explore the mindset and behaviors of the Mature Market. We conducted the research using a “Build Your Own” trade-off exercise along with a MaxDiff methodology that we’re really excited about. And unlike most of the work we do, the information is actually public and you can access it here: http://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/mmi-discovering-what-matters-study.pdf Here are a couple of myths that the study data breaks down: 1. Myth: The Good Life = material wealth. When asked what contributes to living a purposeful life, respondents were selected spending time with friends/family (86%) and taking care of their physical self (63%). These purpose-driven activities are increasingly important as people age. 2. Myth: Happiness = the absence of misfortune. 59% of the respondents experienced at least one such negative trigger event over the past 1...

Not that I watch the Celebrity Apprentice (cough, cough), or really expected more, but its scary how much this week's episode butchered the concept of focus groups as they prepared to pitch their ideas for a new graphic novel style mascot for Zappos .com. Not to go all research snob on you, but at a minimum: 1) They should have had a moderator or at least a discussion guide 2) They should have been talking Zappos customers and prospects, not comic book fans 3) They should have had something to show participants or they should have conducted ideation exercises Seriously, I shouldn't have expected more. But it irks me when research is so poorly displayed in popular culture. At least they have a better writeup on the value of focus groups on the web site. Watch for yourself at: http://www.nbc.com/the-celebrity-apprentice/video/clips/week-2-athenas-focus-group/1053921/

Courtesy of Seth Godin's blog... I think the first point is the most important. Asking questions qith precision and with the respondent in mind will make the insights you get back more valuable and keep your customers and prospects willing to participate in research. Five tips for better online surveys (read the whole post here) Every question you ask is expensive. (Expensive in terms of loyalty and goodwill). Don't ask a question unless you truly care about the answer. This means that a vague question with vague answers (extremely satisfied...acceptable...extremely dissatisfied and no scale to compare them to) is a total waste of time. What action will you take based on that? It's smarter to ask, "how much would you say lunch was worth?" Every question you ask changes the way your users think. If you ask, "which did you hate more..." then you've planted a seed. Make it easy for the user to bail. If you have 20 questions (that's a lot!) make it e...

They may have gotten the names mixed up, but the good looking genteleman in the Red Sox hat made some great points! http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/business/030809_Circuit_City_closes_its_doors

They may have gotten the names mixed up, but the good looking genteleman in the Red Sox hat made some great points! http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/business/030809_Circuit_City_closes_its_doors

There was a fascinating article in a recent Rolling Stone about the impact of Best Buy's and WalMart's marketing strategies on sales of Guns N Roses' Chinese Democracy and ACDC's Black Ice. I am a Best Buy fan, and a long time supporter of GnR, but even I had a hard time finding it in store back in December. Apparently I wasn't the only one. Clearly if you're striking a single channel deal, you need to be asking a lot more questions than Geffen Records and Axl did to make sure its not just in the store, it is the store!

There was a fascinating article in a recent Rolling Stone about the impact of Best Buy's and WalMart's marketing strategies on sales of Guns N Roses' Chinese Democracy and ACDC's Black Ice. I am a Best Buy fan, and a long time supporter of GnR, but even I had a hard time finding it in store back in December. Apparently I wasn't the only one. Clearly if you're striking a single channel deal, you need to be asking a lot more questions than Geffen Records and Axl did to make sure its not just in the store, it is the store!

A colleague of mine at Chadwick Martin Bailey recently attended AMA's MPlanet Conference in Florida. In the current economy, its tough to get to all of the conferences that you would like to attend, so we're happy to pass on some key takeaways. This conference was not so much about cutting edge techniques or methodologies, but rather about issues facing companies marketing in this deep recession; how they can step up to help revive the economy. While the economic outlook remains dire, marketers are stepping up and looking for ways to adjust their business models to meet the changing environment – John Hayes (CMO of American Express) summed it up well: “We need to establish new customer “listening posts” and visit them frequently. There is a reason God gave us 2 ears and only 1 mouth! Listening provides unparalleled potential.” He also noted that the world passes us by if we aren’t constantly innovating. Trust is a corporation’s most valuable asset. Anne Mulcahy (CEO of Xerox) s...

Two quick stories today... one good, one bad. I love what Ben and Jerry's sent me by email yesterday ... taking a swipe at competitors downsizing by basically saying - A pint is still a pint. Good for them. I don't endorse price increases, but don't give me less than I am trying to buy. A pint is an actual size, not a figure of speech. Ugh. Just one more reason to love our friends from Vermont. On a lesser note, I received a fascinating voice mail from my daily newspaper stating that rates were going up... but not what they were. Just that I could call a number for more information. So, they decide to use technology to communicate with their customers (good idea) but use that same concept to underhandedly raise my rates while putting the onus on the customer to find out how much. No wonder its a dying industry.

Two quick stories today... one good, one bad. I love what Ben and Jerry's sent me by email yesterday ... taking a swipe at competitors downsizing by basically saying - A pint is still a pint. Good for them. I don't endorse price increases, but don't give me less than I am trying to buy. A pint is an actual size, not a figure of speech. Ugh. Just one more reason to love our friends from Vermont. On a lesser note, I received a fascinating voice mail from my daily newspaper stating that rates were going up... but not what they were. Just that I could call a number for more information. So, they decide to use technology to communicate with their customers (good idea) but use that same concept to underhandedly raise my rates while putting the onus on the customer to find out how much. No wonder its a dying industry.