Marketing in Real Life

For years we have all been reading studies about the power of Boomers, including our own, however recent research from PhocusWright shows that, at least in the travel sector, Boomer power may be dwindling. Now finally Boomers can see the power of younger generations correctly (take that Mom and Dad!) Certainly this group has more reason to be concerned about dwindling 401Ks than the Gen X and Y crowd who won't be touching theirs for decades and its showing in travel bookings. According to the study, "trailing-edge baby boomers (45-54 years old) actually spent the least of any age group per household on travel. They are also the most likely to reduce their travel spending in 2009, with 27% planning reductions in travel frequency and spending. " Read the entire article here .

We seem to be seeing lots and lots of client-side researchers being laid off lately, so a story in yesterday's Daily Research News caught my attention stating that many companies are bringing more research in house. This conflicts with other reports I have seen, so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out through the rest of 2009. Certainly activity is picking up, but summer is coming so stay tuned. Excerpt: Research suppliers may see declines in 2009 revenue as more clients prepare to take a proportion of their online research in-house, predicts an industry survey conducted earlier in the year. The survey, conducted online in February among senior research practitioners and co-sponsored by online-oriented companies Cambiar, MRops and Peanut Labs, suggests that the decline in research industry revenues in 2009 may be higher than suppliers are expecting. While clients are anticipating that budgets may be flat to falling, the fact that they intend to do more in-house su...

For a few weeks I have been wondering which companies were going to take advantage of the reduced number of advertisers and lowering rated by expanding their own spend. Its been obvious on the local level, where local businesses have gotten increasingly better placements. Or they have been sending the right bribes to media traffic staff. On the national level, it looks as they Dr Pepper and Snapple are among the first to raise their spend. A good move in my mind, we'll see if it works the way it has in the past. From Flex News via Reuters: Company executives said they decided on the strategy after research firm Nielsen produced a study for them that detailed ad spending patterns during the early 1980s, the last prolonged advertising downturn."We wanted to find out what were the brands that were successful in '83 and '84, coming out of the recession?" said Trebilcock. "What did they do differently than others during the middle of the recession? Uniformly, the ...

For a few weeks I have been wondering which companies were going to take advantage of the reduced number of advertisers and lowering rated by expanding their own spend. Its been obvious on the local level, where local businesses have gotten increasingly better placements. Or they have been sending the right bribes to media traffic staff. On the national level, it looks as they Dr Pepper and Snapple are among the first to raise their spend. A good move in my mind, we'll see if it works the way it has in the past. From Flex News via Reuters: Company executives said they decided on the strategy after research firm Nielsen produced a study for them that detailed ad spending patterns during the early 1980s, the last prolonged advertising downturn."We wanted to find out what were the brands that were successful in '83 and '84, coming out of the recession?" said Trebilcock. "What did they do differently than others during the middle of the recession? Uniformly, the ...

In marketing pubs and blogs you often see people raving about the power of social media and web 2.0, but our friends at Domino's had quite a different experience last week. In case you missed it, two uniformed employees posted a video of them making a mess of someone's order, boogers and all. Not surprisingly this made its way around the web in record fashion. Watch the video here. The lesson: Not all buzz is good buzz. It will be interesting to see if there is a real impact, but at least for a few weeks many consumers will think twice about what toppings they are really getting with their Domino's pie. Here is a great article on how one YouTube Video can ruin a brand, including some research on the video's impact. ...And the pretty well thought out response from Domino's