All posts by rufo

President of nxtConcepts and myMarketingGuide.com. Interactive Marketer. Speaker. Skier. Lover of Scotch.

I got my Personal QR Code!

March 20, 2009 rufo

Ever since I saw the Ralph Lauren mobile campaign last summer that they launched for the U.S. Open, I have been excited about the possibilities of QR (Quick Response) codes for clients.

What are those?

QR code: (Quick response) it is a 2d bar code like you would see on any regular products. This code allows cell phone users to be directed to a specific website where you can purchase or receive more info.

This example is for m.ralphlauren.com

It launched in the summer of 2008. All the marketing for the event-posters, print ads, cards, shirts, etc had QR codes so that people could just “point and click (using a camera phone and internet access + QR reader).

How It Works

-open mobile application downloaded to your cellphone

-hover over code to snap picture

-Click to go to the site & browse info, read, watch videos, or buy something.

Cool note-using this technology you would be able to place a QR code on a t-shirt where people could scan and link directly to your myspace page. So, that’s why I decided to try it out first with a personal code. Here’s mine:

The Basics

Ok, if you want to see how this works, follow these instructions. Note, you do need a camera enabled phone to do this and have a Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or AT& T carrier.

From your cell phone (easiest way to do this)
1. On your cell phone go to the mobile site http://www.clic2c.us.mobile
2. The correct software will download to your cell phone.
3. After it is installed (about 60 seconds) open the program and aim the phone’s camera shutter at the QR code. It will take you to my website.

From the web
1. Go here http://www.clic2c.us/download.aspx
2. Follow directions for getting the correct cellphone application download.
Once the application is downloaded to your PC, send it to your phone using Bluetooth, infrared or USB. Open the program on your cell phone to snap the QR code and see the magic.

Watch for some new and exciting case studies as we start implementing and getting feedback from some new mobile campaigns using QR codes.

General

Marketing Mishaps-Not Funny Then, Funny Now

March 19, 2009 rufo

In today’s post I am going to borrow a concept I saw recently for “Not Funny Then, Funny Now” to describe some of the marketing related incidents that come to mind over the years. If any of these trigger your own memories, please share below.

Not Funny Then…While working as the Marketing Director at Mad River Mountain Ski Area, a guest showed his dislike for a company no refund policy by lunging over the counter to try to attack me. Police were called…Funny now.

Not Funny Then…Back in 1996 fighting to get the ok for a $2,000 web budget to create a company website (in the travel industry). The “powers-to-be” felt the web was a passing fad and the budget allowance “irresponsible spending”…Funny Now.

Not funny then…Having to pull a brochure off a printer’s press because of one sentence that said “a skiing event for those with a lust for life”. At the last minute, lust was considered too risque for the “powers -to-be” and had to be replaced by “love” for life. By waiting to the last minute to change this, it costs us days of delay and thousands of dollars…Funny Now.

Not funny then…After a takeover of the organization I worked for, we were asked to put together a document explaining what we did, projects we’ve worked on and recommendations for moving forward. I spent 2 weeks putting together a detailed portfolio book (and copies). When my meeting time came to meet with the new CEO, he shook my hand, said “Oh, you are the Marketing Director, the necessary evil”. Proceeded to flip thru the carefully prepared portfolio and hand it back to me. When I told him it was his copy, he said, “that’s ok, I really have no where to put it”. Got up and left after about 5 minutes…Funny Now (Developed a great relationship with the CEO and worked there for years afterward).

News To Use

Twitter Tools Review

March 18, 2009 rufo

With the explosion of the popularity of Twitter, comes new tools and websites promising everything from helping you to make money to simplifying your life. So, the biggest question on my mind, is “just because it is free, is it really is worth using”?

I went with a simple grading system:
-is it easy to start using
-will it save me time
-does it really do something unique and useful

If the product got a yes to all three questions above, they get listed in the “Hot” Column, if not, well, then they are “Not”.

Hot	Not
Twibs Find, follow and interact with businesses, apps and services on Twitter.	Twitpay TwitPay is a simple way to send payments via Twitter.
Why: Easy to follow business listing directory	Why: Doesn’t seem very secure and only works with Amazon payments.
TwitPic TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, the TwitPic home page or your Twitter account.	GroupTweet Send private Twitter messages to specific groups of friends.
Why: Simple to use and a great way to easily tie-in to your Twitter account.	Why: Need to create a new account for each group. Seems like I could do that directly thru Twitter too.
Mr. Tweet A personal networking assistant for Twitter, helping you identify relevant followers, recommending you to other users and regularly computing your Twitter usage statistics.	Twitter Alerts Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company and anything else, via hourly email updates.
Why: Finding people you really want to follow can be difficult, so this kind of help is appreciated and a time saver.	Why: After setting up the account, I realized it uses Twitter Search. So, why not just use Twitter Search?
TwitWall With TwitWall, you can embed your favorite videos and widgets and upload your photos, MP3 music, podcasts, you name it.	StrawPoll StrawPoll is the coolest way to follow the opinions of people on Twitter. With this app, you can create your own poll.
Why: Adds some 3d to the otherwise plain Twitter profile page. Was up and running in minutes.	Why: I like the concept but had a hard time figuring out how it works and how to track results.
UnTweeps Unfollow Tweeps who have not posted tweets recently.	Twitter Friends Network Browser Browse through your Twitter friends, your friends’ friends, your friends’ friends’ friends.
Why: It seems the way to the best ratings on Twitter is to have more people follow you than you follow others. So, using this tool might help increase your ratings.	Why: Although it looks cool, I couldn’t get it to do anything but get more confusing.
Twitter Grader Twitter Grader measures the power of your Twitter profile. How high do you rank?	Twittertise Twittertise allows you to advertise on Twitter and track the success of your branded communications with customers.
Why: Since I am competitive I like this. Nice way to see how your postings compare to other similar profiles.	Why: Seems like what they offer–post a special or coupon–could also be done directly into your profile.
TwitterSheep Enter your twitter username to see a tag cloud from the ‘bios’ of your twitter flock.	Twitterless Twitterless tells you who stops following you and graphs your follower history over time, displaying the info in a variety of useful views.
Why: Looks cool and is functional too.	Why: Love the idea but I think the developers got overwhelmed with response. Didn’t seem to be working.
Just Tweet It Just Tweet It makes it easier for tweeters to find other tweeters with similar interests.	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: Another cool directory that’s not just for business.
Twitter Search Search Twitter is an excellent search engine that allows you to find out what’s happening in the world beyond your personal timeline.	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: THE way to search for comments, people, hashtags, and more on Twitter.
twhirl Most of the features available on the Twitter website are accessible through twhirl, with usability enhancements.	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: When following comments and posts gets too hard to follow thru the web, this is a great next step. Also has tools to shorten URL’s, add pics, and more.
TweetDeck TweetDeck aims to improve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking the abundance of Twitter feeds and breaking it down into more manageable bite-sized pieces .	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: Are you a serious Twit? Than this software is for you. Makes managing large numbers of followers possible.
Twitalyzer is a tool that calculates your influence based on your signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity and clout, and it also allows you to calculate a score for any other Twitter user you want to keep tabs on. Since it displays increases and decreases to your influence over time, it is also a way to test the positive or negative impact of new Twitter strategies .	Have a “Not” you would like to add? Contact me.
Why: There’s not much analytics yet for Twitter, but this is about the best you’ll find at the moment.

As a side note, there is one thing that does concern me. Almost all the related Twitter websites that offer these tools want you to give them your username and password in order to use their services. That seems like a big problem waiting to happen.

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my reviews. Have a few to add? Just let me know.

News To Use

Skittles the Un-Website

March 17, 2009 rufo

Ok, for the last month or so I have heard people talking about “what Skittles did” and the huge controversy. I just figured it was more of the usual website hype. Until this morning. Now I understand what the hoopla (who says those words anymore?) is about.

In a nutshell, if you also have not followed the Skittles talk, they replaced their regular website that had content, product information, and the usual company fluff, with a portal atmosphere that brings in many of the big social networks. That’s right, they got rid of their website and are using YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and other network spaces instead. WOW.

They have essentially said, “you our customer know how you want to interact with us, so we are handing you the keyboard” (my quote not theirs). I personally think this is brilliant. Skittles is going where their customers are. They are truly “giving power to the people”. They have however gotten quite a bit of criticism from marketers and business people. One blog post I read called the move “crazy“.

According to Skittles, their goal was to “consolidate access to all social media around the brand.” I applaud them. They are a bit ahead of their time. What they did is what I consider a stab at web 3.0. What’s that? It’s where businesses and brands will be able to harness and make the current social media landscape usable and personal. Friendster and ping.fm are just a few examples of organizations already trying to do this.

Good or bad, there’s a few things we can learn from this:

1. The first one there owns the game. Skittles will get the most publicity and launch excitement because they tried it first. Others that follow will have a hard time getting the coverage that Skittles did. Since they did it first, they also get to create the rules and build the business model.

2. Integrated branding. Skittles is focusing their time on creating their company profiles across the social media channels online and their traditional marketing offline. They are approaching new media with new thinking. They are creating an entire brand experience from each part and funneling everything back to their website URL.

3. Optimization. Talk about high ROI. Skittles will be able to gain higher visibility and link-ability on the web faster and easier than any website before it. How? They are letting their customers do it for them.

4. Mistakes happen. Is the Skittles new concept perfect? No, of course not. By trying to legally protect themselves with a dialog box asking your age before you can visit the site they seem to be turning off site visitors. But, this is how they and those that follow behind them will learn.

So, as I wrap up this post for the day,I am left thinking, who else would this concept work for?

General

Mad Men vs. Trust Me

March 14, 2009 rufo 3 Comments

If asked, I would say I am a selective TV watcher. I have DVR (records TV shows for me) so I can watch shows when I want rather than when the networks determine the best time for them. In any case, I had heard good things about the show called “Mad Men” which revolves around a Madison Avenue Advertising Agency back in the 1950’s and 60’s. After one show I was hooked. Why wouldn’t I be, I own and run a marketing company myself? Which means I am always looking to see how the other half lives. (Even if it is in TV land)

So, the show is sexist, completely politically incorrect and makes my blood boil half the time. I love it! My mouth drops half the time and I think “how can they get away with this” but it is a great look into how supposedly business used to run. Of course, since I was born decades after this show’s time period, I’ll never really know how agencies conducted themselves back then. But, I tend to believe from shows like this and Bewitched, that alcohol and fooling around was involved quite a bit. Makes you wonder how work actually got done!

Fast forward to today. The new “ad agency” show is Trust Me. It does seem to reflect more of the times we live in. It is growing on me. I find it interesting to watch the client meetings, ad pitches, and how they do the creative process. Does it seem like a day in my life at work? Well, not really but it does get get me to laugh and appreciate a bit more the people I work with.

So, what’s my point in writing about TV shows that revolve around the marketing profession today? Basically to ask the question, are these types of shows helping or hurting our industry? Do shows like this just make non-marketers think all we do is drink all day and play with toys in our offices? Or, do people realize that these shows are just for entertainment value?

Rant

Marketing in a virtual world

March 13, 2009 rufo 1 Comment

It seems like today marketers need to be a cross between creative geniuses, writers, and tech geeks to be able to survive in our digital age.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the age we now live in. It’s like the “wild west” for marketers. We get to go to unknown places (mobile marketing, twitter, social networks, search engines) and carve out our own niche.

As a creative person, I’m never thrilled when I must work in a confined space. I like to stretch my right brain. I like to try new things. I like to succeed. That is easy to do when few road maps exist for business models in cyberspace.

Here’s my five ways to be successful in a virtual world:

1. Be open to learn. Although the thought of learning yet another new program or having to remember one more login can seem daunting, it is important to be open to trying new things. As marketers we know that people get bored or loose interest quickly, so it is critical to look forward and not back. Here’s a trick I learned, that seems to work well with men, women, young and old. When learning some new technology, work in three’s. Learn three things that are critical for use. Once you know those three things inside and out, learn three more. Keep going until you feel comfortable or have found all the things you feel are useful to your goals and objectives for using the software/technology.

2. Watch and learn. Some people can jump right in. Some need some time to get used to the temperature of the water. I believe is is human nature to learn by watching others. So, if you decide to set up a new account in a social network, watch what others are doing at least 30 days. Then, start to post comments, build your network, or whatever it is you want to do. By then you should have a good feel for how it works and how you want to participate.

3. Be consistent. If you are going to do something, do it right. Many people start blogs, few people keep them more than a few months. Why? It takes work and commitment. Rome was not built overnight, and neither are great marketing campaigns.

4. Socialize. The great thing about the virtual world on the web is that you can connect with your peers both locally and half way across the world. In no other time could you build a social network of business contacts that spans the globe as easy as you can today. By socializing on the web you can expand your thinking and even build better marketing programs with the help of your new networks. All you need to do is ask.

5. Don’t mess it up for the rest of us. Email was a wonderful tool until spammers took over. The social networks allow us to connect in new and wonderful ways, unless hackers steal our accounts. My only wish is that people would just use the cool tools for what they were meant to do.

Your thoughts? Have any points to add?

News To Use

What is your time worth?

March 12, 2009 rufo

If you’re a consultant, non-billable time (the time you spend doing things that you can’t actually bill for) may be the biggest drain on your cash flow. Here’s a few suggestions on how to minimize this hidden expense.

What is Non-billable time?

a) Marketing (as in personal networking, preparing and mailing direct-mail letters, writing proposals for new business, phone solicitation, etc.)

b) Bookkeeping and record keeping

c) Office maintenance (filing, cleaning, organizing, etc.)

d) Taking care of customer questions, issues, etc.

Although important, non-billable time can eat into your profits. For instance, if you spend 40 hours a week “working” at your place of business, and you charge $30 an hour for your services, you have the potential of making$1,200 per week. However, if you spend 10 hours a week performing non-billable work, you’ll be able to bill for only 30 hours. That means you make $900 instead of $1,200 — a $300 dollar difference. Over the course of 50 working weeks during the year, that would mean the difference of $15,000 in your total income!

There are several ways to eliminate or at least minimize this reduction in your income.

1. You can simply raise your fees, based on how much non-billable time you spend. For instance, if your rates are $30/hr. as in the example in the previous point, raising your rates to $40/hr. would mean that the 30 billable hours you spend each week would result in a total income of $1,200 — the same amount you would make if you didn’t have any non-billable hours.

2. You can hire assistants or contract outside help to take care of the non-billable tasks, allowing you to get back to what makes you money. The assistants will, presumably, be paid less than you charge per hour, letting you make up the difference.

3. You could look into ways to speed up the time you spend on non-billable projects. Perhaps a new computer program could help speedup your bookkeeping, or help you organize your schedule. Look for ways to streamline your activities in every way possible.

4. (Most effective overall) You can become more aware of the non-billable time you’re spending each week. Try to cut down the time you spend on such tasks, or bite the bullet and take care of them after work hours or on weekends when possible. Often, simply becoming aware of how badly non-billable time is eating into your income can help minimize the problem.

Do you have any tips or stories about how you saved money or increased your take home pay? Let me know.

How To

Go Ahead, Bug Your Customers

March 10, 2009 rufo

What is a Viral Campaign?

Have you ever visited a website and found an article, a coupon, a special offer, or something else that impressed you so much that you immediately sent an email to a friend about it? If you have, you’ve experienced “viral marketing”.

Viral marketing is a low cost, highly effective way to reach your customers using the internet. This “word of mouse” method is like a bug or flu virus in humans. Instead of replicating and propagating itself to other humans it does it to other computers (in a good way). One minute nobody’s heard of it, next minute, it’s everywhere. Viral marketing is so effective because it lets you capitalize on referrals from an unbiased third party—your consumer! Let just one of your customers catch your “marketing bug” and they will happily spread it to everyone they know.

So what then is a viral campaign? It’s a specific marketing promotion that focuses on something you do, NOT on who you are. It is also not something malicious or under-handed. Viral marketing is used by reputable companies trying to promote reputable products. A viral campaign does not use spam or programs that force people to see or do things they do not want.

Instead, a viral campaign is something that is so cool, so exciting, or so creative that it gets people so excited; they can’t wait to share it with others. It’s subtle, not forceful. It’s uncontrollable. The exposure you get from this MAY raise sales or otherwise help your company name recognition, but that’s actually the by-product. That’s why it’s so effective if done correctly!

With a good viral campaign, people feel compelled to spread your word. They can’t help themselves (just like sneezing when you pass a virus around). The heart of a viral campaign is the content. People don’t spread what you say or do because they love you, they spread it because they can’t help but adore your content. Don’t forget! They are not evangelists serving you, they are self-serving.

So, all successful viral campaigns appeal to any one (or all three) of these basic human motivators: entertainment, greed, or charity. For an example of a viral campaign, check out SkiHeroes.com.

General

She’s baaaack…

March 9, 2009 rufo 1 Comment

It’s been over 2 years since I have tapped the keys to post on my blog. I really can’t believe it has been that long.

My last blog post was “Blogging takes courage” (Look down to read more. I was able to import some of the posts from my old blog)

It was a good post, but not great enough to be the last thing I had to say about blogging. So, today marks the day I am coming back from my blog retirement. I hate to offer excuses, but after starting blogging in 2004, two years later I had pretty much run out of things to say. You see my first blog was about blogs and blogging. I think it was too narrow of a focus. Between struggling to find new things to discuss and having a losing battle with spammers, I had grown disenchanted. Which led to my hiatus for a few years.

But, I do miss it. I miss having a bit more space to ramble on than Twitter. My blog, although I share it with the world, is really my soapbox. It is my freedom to write whatever the heck I want. How often in life do we get that?

So, I welcome you to my marketing blog. Where I tell it like I see it. And, invite you to do the same.

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The Official Samantha Rufo Blog

All posts by rufo

I got my Personal QR Code!

Marketing Mishaps-Not Funny Then, Funny Now

Twitter Tools Review

Mad Men vs. Trust Me

What is your time worth?

Go Ahead, Bug Your Customers

She’s baaaack…

President of nxtConcepts, Ltd