Decent Marketing

The Blame Game: It's the Bloggers' Fault

I can't help but weigh in on the Neil French debacle -- if you haven't heard, French, the worldwide creative director of WPP Worldwide (parent to such firms as Grey, Ogilvy & Mather, Red Cell, Y&R, Wunderman, JWT, Hill & Knowlton, etc.) had to resign last Thursday after telling an audience in Toronto that women don't work hard enough and don't deserve the top creative jobs in advertising.  Apparently we're not committed enough because we also care about our children or something.  No ... I'm not kidding.

Anyway, what really killed me was what he said about resigning in The New York Times on Friday.  In an article by Julie Bosman, "Mr. French said he did not regret his remarks, but thought the reaction to them was 'lunacy'.  'I'm extremely sad about it,' said Mr. French, who has been widely pilloried on the Internet.  'Death by blog is not really the way to go.'"

Death by blog?!  More like death by being an idiot.  What do blogs have to do with what he said and why he resigned?  Thank God for blogs, so that we can all be informed of what people really think, especially when those people are in power.  There has been no dispute, as far as I can tell, that he said what he said.  So if bloggers are incensed and saying so, Amen.  Democracy in action.  Thanks for nothing, Mr. French, on behalf of myself and creative women everywhere.

Here's more on this from AdPulp and Adrants.

Marketing in India: Read Between the Ps

I don't often promote other marketing blogs, other than the ones on the blogroll on the left side of this site.  Most of the interesting or newsy ones -- like Brand Autopsy, AdPulp, Johnnie Moore, Michele Miller's Wonderbranding, AdRants, PSFK and so many others -- are already well known so there's no point in me bringing it up.  I do, however, want to share one with you that I like because it has a good international perspective.  I think it's especially important for those of us in the U.S. to widen our horizons and understand what's going on in marketing around the globe.   The Read Between the Ps Marketing Blog is written by Puru Gupta.  Puru is an MBA student in Delhi, India.  He writes about various advertising campaigns in India and other countries.  It's a nice resource for advertising from different cultures that you wouldn't otherwise get to see.  For instance, on October 6 he wrote a post about an ad from Visa appearing in India and Pakistan featuring Richard Gere -- I thought his brief analysis of why Richard Gere was the right choice for the ad was interesting.  (I can't figure out how to link to it or I would - you can find by scrolling down the main page of the blog.)   Check it out to see what's happening elsewhere in the world.

Tag: marketing

Meet Them Where They Live

I saw a little sidebar piece in the New York Times today about a program the Mercury car brand has launched called the random acts promotion. 

"... marketers of the new Mercury Milan aren't waiting for you to come to the cars; they are coming to you, and buying you a cup of coffee."

They showed up unannounced at Mums & Pops Cafe in Philadelphia on Friday and bought everyone free cups of coffee.  They parked the new Milan outside the cafe.   Interested customers were allowed to sit in the car and check out its interior, but there were no test drives.  They did however receive a voucher for $50 that they could redeem for cash by showing up for a test drive at a dealership.   

I love the fact that Mercury is bringing its product to the people, rather than expecting them to come to the cars.  People who might never have considered a Mercury Milan might do so once they've experienced it in person.  I also love the fact that they showed up announced to the owners of the shop, but unannounced and unhyped to the customers.  They simply arrived and bought coffee and shared the car.  What a nice, friendly and relaxed way to sell your wares (assuming the in-store pitch from Mercury marketing people was not over the top).   I do hope, though, that there was some insurance issue or other good reason why Mums & Pops patrons couldn't drive the car.  I think I'd be annoyed to sit in it, decide I like how it looks and feels, and then be told I'd have to show up at the dealership to actually drive it.  I realize they want to get people into the store to get the sale, but I wish consumers could have had more of an experience with the car.  I also realize they're offering 50 bucks for the test drive, but, given time, I might have done it for free at the cafe and they could have saved their 50 bucks. 

Anyway, I like marketing programs like these, because they show that companies are willing to do more than simply interrupt you to get your attention. 

More blogs about experiential marketing.

The Orange & Blue Sides Come Together

Cingular's Director of Sales for the Atlanta and North Georgia region called me this morning.  Somehow he found out about my recent blog post recounting my terrible experience trying to get my BlackBerry fixed at my local Cingular store.  He agreed with me that there should be no orange and blue sides.  He said he appreciated my candor and felt the post helped inform them that they still have some hiccups to work out.  He apologized for my bad experience and said that it was very important to Cingular to provide positive customer interactions.  Well, how about that. 

I was impressed.  Usually companies either ignore bad customer service experiences or explain them away or have someone blandly recite some pre-written business pablum script to the offended.  He did none of those.  He was sincere and open.  I appreciate the apology.  I have hope for Cingular yet ...

Tag: marketing

My Space is NOT Your Space

One issue that is near and dear to me is postpartum depression (PPD).  I suffered it with the birth of my first child.  I now have a blog that focuses on the issue to provide support for women who have gone or are going through it.  (By the way, I'm currently 16-weeks pregnant with child number two, and have discovered a fun new thing -- all-day morning sickness!) 

This morning in my email inbox I received notification that I had gotten comments on three different blog posts from the same person.  When I read the comments, they turned out to be written by someone promoting a screening service to help busy doctors identify patients with PPD.  The person essentially wrote the same sales pitch for the three different posts and included a link to his business.  That is indecent marketing as far as I'm concerned. 

Where do people get the idea that there are no rules of etiquette when it comes to marketing?  My blog exists to support women with PPD, and is NOT a free advertising service for all comers.  I just think it's among the lowest of the low to comment spam to promote porn sites or online sales of Viagra or even more legitimate businesses.  Fortunately I have a delete button.  Everyday consumers can hang up on unsolicited sales calls, throw out irrelevant direct mail and delete spam as well.  But it really peeves me that we even have to spend the time it takes to press "delete".  I am completely against rude marketing behavior. 

Thankfully, some marketers seem to know how to behave.  I get emails every day from people pitching new marketing books, publicity events, new products, etc.  Since I write about marketing, I accept that they feel I may be interested in what they have to offer.  They write a brief, descriptive email to me in private, and I then reserve the right to decide whether I want to learn more.  If I don't, I just delete the email, or sometimes respond back as to why it's just not something I want to write about.  Most of these people then have the decency to respect that and do not continue to hound me.  Comment spammers and others like them just skip over all the niceties and invade my blog.  My blog space is mine, and my personal space is mine, and I do not like people who decide it's ok to raid that space for their personal gain.

Needless to say, I deleted all three comments from that guy so that they no longer appear on my blog, and if any more show up from him I'll delete those too.  I've got my delete finger ready.

Tag: marketing