Facebook Implements Polling Ads
Jan 27, 2009
Advertisers seeking to crack the code on reaching Facebook's growing audience have a new weapon in their arsenal: polls.
Tag: product development
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Big CPG Players: Going On Offense In 2010?
Jan 28, 2010
A recent Advertising Age article caught my eye and I think it’s important. The gist: key consumer packaged goods manufacturers are promising to roll out innovative new products in 2010 after a major slow-down in 2009 due to the rocky economy. The article: “Package-Good Players Plan New-Product Surge for 2010” states that some of the largest global consumer product companies “have said or signaled that they expect to step up new-product activity, and by extension, marketing support in 2010.”
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TV Makers Gamble on 3-D at Home
Dec 18, 2009
With flat-panel TVs selling for the prices comparable to ordinary televisions a few years ago, manufacturers searching for the next profit boost are preparing a big push with models that can display pictures in 3-D. The world's biggest TV companies are hoping the move will let them capitalize on the billions of dollars they have invested in display technologies this decade and stay a step ahead of the discount brands that have taken a sizable bite from their market share. But the potential gain from 3-D TVs hangs on whether consumers will immediately flock to the technology, and whether there's enough appealing 3-D content to draw them. A delay will allow other manufacturers time to catch up, leading to the price competition that routinely whittles down profits in electronic goods.
How Google Crowd-Sourced The World Before Launching A Mobile Phone
Dec 17, 2009
Imagine crowd-sourcing the entire world before launching a product and not spending one penny for a marketing campaign. You could gain insight from reporters, analysts and consumers about the types of services that would and wouldn't work. The online audience segment you address could become your buyers. You might even determine a fair market price for the product, or gain insight into the continent where the product should launch first. And if the product happened to be a mobile phone, you could even determine the best carrier to bundle services. Even if the phone doesn't exist now, Google has proven that the market is ripe for the company to jump on in. And to think it all started with a blog post and a few Twitter tweets from Google employees.
McDonald’s Speeds Orders by Seconds to Keep Customers
Nov 6, 2009
At a McDonald’s Corp. test kitchen in an unmarked Illinois warehouse, next year’s menu plan for the U.K. has hit a snag. When the visiting British team adds wrap sandwiches, service slows. “This is the place to find out,” said Jeff Stratton, McDonald’s chief restaurant officer, as he considered the fate of the wrap. It’s among dozens of new products being tested at the Innovation Center to make sure service isn’t disrupted. “We will probably not recommend they add this one until the bugs are worked out,” he said. Speed is increasingly the focus, as McDonald’s tries to increase customer satisfaction and gain market share amid an economic slowdown that’s driving people to eat at home.
Marketers: Is Creativity In Advertising Dead?
Nov 6, 2009
Have you seen anything lately that you thought was a creative approach to a consumer business? I'm talking about something that isn't a social networking or mobile business, but instead is an established product or service that is extending its brand in a way that puts competitors on the defensive. While speaking at a recent event, the moderator asked my co-panelists and me if the pendulum had swung too far toward short-term returns rather than long-term marketing and new product development. We collectively agreed that while improving analytics and financial discipline is a good development, marketers are currently shortchanging the creative side of the equation.
Wired Editor Chris Anderson On Freemium Business Models
Oct 26, 2009
Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson is now speaking at Y Combinator’s Startup School about Freemium Business Models. Anderson likened freemium to handing out muffins on the street to entice people to start eating your muffins. But with muffins there’s a significant cost to giving away each muffin. With digital goods, you can give away 90% of your product for free, without any cost for those goods. He says ‘free users’ aren’t free loaders, and that it’s okay to let the minority (paid users) subsidize the majority. Because the free users will recommend to friends, it’s a great form of marketing. And for those paid users, many of them are very strong customers — they may be price insensitive, with very little churn.
Everything I Need To Know About Product Development I Learned From Google
Oct 7, 2009
As loyal Search Insider readers know, I've been fleshing out marketing lessons learned from Google for three consecutive columns as a precursor to a book I'm writing -- Everything I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned From Google. I figure it's never too early to start working on a sequel so, today, I'd like to focus on lessons learned from Google about product development. The Google corporate site outlines "Ten things we know to be true." (Wish I'd seen these before I set out to capture my last twenty lessons!) These "core principals" can certainly be applied to many facets of business but I think, more than anything, they provide a blueprint for successful product development.
The Importance Of Enthusiasm In Any Product
Sep 18, 2009
A video took the web by storm today entitled “Incredible, amazing, awesome Apple.” Basically, it boils down Apple’s latest event into a series of superlatives. It’s a funny video because Apple really does have a pattern of using these types of words over and over again in its demonstrations. Cynics will say this is how Apple brainwashes the masses into buying their products, and gets people jazzed about the tiniest features. But I think there’s something much deeper here. While certainly there is some element of hearing something so many times that you start to believe it, that’s nothing new, any good salesman will do the same thing. But why I think the tactic works so well with Apple is because they actually believe what they’re saying.
Starbucks: From Passive to Aggressive Marketer
Sep 11, 2009
Starbucks is a brand that grew from the ground up and always flirted with marketing in a a way that it never felt comfortable with. However, given a year of declining comp store sales and an erosion of the brand, marketing appears to be firmly back on the agenda. At a recent Goldman Sachs conference, the CFO of Starbucks talked repeatedly about marketing initiatives that are doing to be driving the company forward.
The Big Drop Off
Sep 10, 2009
We try so hard to build the first circle. This is the circle of followers, friends, subscribers, customers, media outlets and others willing to hear our pitch. This is the group we tell about our new product, our new record, our upcoming big sale. We want more of their attention and more people on the list. Which takes our attention away from the circle that matters, which is the second circle. The second circle are the people who hear about us from the first circle.
Brand Value Creation - Internal Business Process
Jun 19, 2009
The series on brand value creation continues today with a look at how brands create value for companies in their Internal Business Processes. Although a brand’s ability to create value from the Financial and Customer perspectives is probably the most important, its impact on Internal Business Processes is the most fundamental.
Innovating Innovation: The Best Ideas Can Come From Anywhere
Jun 18, 2009
Traditionally, new product development has been a linear process. The "new product" team creates many alternative versions of the core idea, winnows them down in various stages of testing and re-development until a winner emerges and gets launched. Things are changing. Great ideas are not only coming top-down; they're coming from interns, they're coming from customers sharing their best ideas out of love for your brand (like Dell Idea Storm), from ethnography in third world countries. Innovation is about inspiration coming from continuously listening for the unexpected which can come at anytime from anywhere; nothing linear about that!
Smart Balance Keeps Tight Focus on Creativity
Jun 8, 2009
The product-development laboratory at Smart Balance Inc., a food marketer keen to grow through innovation, contains chemical analyzers, lab benches and refrigerated cases. But there are rarely people.
ConAgra's Chow Talks Innovation, Insights
Apr 27, 2009
ConAgra Foods’ new product pipeline has been sizzling, despite the recession. The maker of Hunt’s tomato sauce and Chef Boyardee saw sales rise 6.1 percent to $3.1 billion for its most recent quarter. New product introductions like Healthy Choice Café Steamers, the No. 1 food launch in 2008—according to market research firm IRI—contributed to that growth. That product brought in $95 million in first-year sales alone (excluding Wal-Mart). While private label and consumer cutback did eat into its bottom line (net income fell 37.5 percent to $193.2 million), CMO Joan Chow still thinks there’s plenty of demand for more new products in tough times. Not to mention some revamping of old favorites.
The Best Marketing is Fluid
Mar 24, 2009
When Jerry Springer: The Opera opened at The National Theatre in London almost every critic raved that this most unlikely of operas would become a worldwide smash. Its success was surprising for two reasons. First, who would have imagined that an opera about Jerry Springer would prove so popular. Second, the way in which the opera was developed offers a best practice approach to product development.
Using Social Media for Product Development
Mar 18, 2009
Are social media surveys the new market research panels? Graham Lee at Onlinefire looks at ways online communities can be used to shape product development.
