Category: startups

Internet Marketing

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

It’s easy to forget our websites need to be designed for people who haven’t, don’t or rarely use computers and the internet. Our interface must be simple – so simple. When our people can’t navigate our site, or find stuff. It’s our fault, every time.

Bill Gates understood this – which is why he was for a long time the worlds richest person.

Unless we market directly to the ‘digirati’ or have a website about websites (which many web 2.0 sites seem to be), we must design for the most ‘inept’ user.

Remember that usability wins, not technology.

Four n twenty – Authenticity Facilitates Radvertising

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

For non Australian readers Four n twenty is a brand of meat pie, which is very Australian. A brand people know and love.

We also know that meat pies really have no place in the push for health and wellness. Pies are not a ‘healthy’ food. And quite frankly, who cares? All foods can be part of a healthy diet and trying to change your product because people can’t control themselves, does not a strategy make. It’s high time food marketers started to realise this. The so called ‘obseity crisis’ is not their issue.

Under the control of Multinational Food Giant Simplot, Four n twenty lost the ‘plot’. They started launching pathetic line extensions like ‘Low Fat Pies’ – which clearly would never change the perception of a meat pie, let alone get a non pie eater to start eating them. It’s fake and just damages the brand.

Recently the Four n twenty brand was divested from Simplot, to new owners Patties. These guys – who just play in the pastry and pie market have really shown they get it, when it comes to engaging their core target market.

Four n twenty make no apologies for what they are, the product the sell, and who they make it for. It’s authentic marketing. And their authenticity facilitated a great piece of communication.

This spot is Gold. Clearly it is radvertising.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIYC1gLSSq0]

Kudos Four n Twenty.

Quirky fact

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Fact: The average youtube video only gets watched for 6 seconds.

The average Youtube video lasts for 5 minutes. It’s a rare event indeed for a video to get watched until the end. That’s why most view counts are so low, only those watched until completion count.

With almost 90 million videos on the site;

Start up blog says: Review your Youtube videos. Make it clear what they’re getting in first few seconds, or they wont have the patience to ever find out.

Your call

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

(read in digital voice)

Hello, (pause)

Your call is important to us. We are unable to take you call at this time. (what?)

If you wish to change your account details press 1

If you’d like to listen to your account balance press 2

If you’d like to make a payment press 3

If you’d like to hear these options again press 4

If you wish to talk to an operator press 0 – the expected wait time is: 17 minutes…..

I hang up. My call is not important to them.

What surprises me is that companies spend millions on TV advertising attempting to create an interaction with potential customers who aren’t listening. Then when people try to interact with the same company, they get given the machine – the finger.

Most companies invest in the wrong area.  Automation is only a benefit when it increases interactions with people. When it facilitates the conversation, not circumvents it. It’s a classic case of balance sheet marketing.

Everything big companies do here is wrong.

Start ups: Talk to your people. Give them a real phone number to ring with a real person at the end of the line. Be there when they call. Have a conversation. Make it personal. Over invest in this area.

Badvertising – New Mother by Coke

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Many including startup blog predicted the death of Mother Energy Drink before it was launched. By the way this was Coca Cola Australia’s 4th attempt to get a share of the energy soft drink market. Other attempts included Lift Plus, Burn and Sprite recharge. All of which bombed.

As predicted ‘Mother’ should have been called ‘Dog’. So they’ve burried the old stock on hand and Coke have re-launched Mother with an all new fix all flavour. Which has lead to the following badvertising:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvgIopzPflI]

Memo to Coke Marketing team: Taste has nothing to do with it. Half of Red Bull’s consumers even admit they don’t like the taste. Consumers know the same people developed the flavour profile of this launch too, and yes they know it’s made by Coke.

The energy space is already occupied in the minds of consumers. The market is already dominated by two powerful brands with strong identities & distribution depth. Save your money on advertising and put it towards buying Red Bull gloablly or V for the Asia Pacific market – because this category is already game set match. The two horse race which all categories become has been run and won.

One more thing – this spot is so contrived, your target market would be laughing at you.

Kind regards – Startup Blog.

Note to start ups – if you’re launching a me too, without a price, distribution or technology advantage – best to re-think the launch plans. If Coke can’t do it – why can you?

Tiffany & Co – go for growth & risk brand

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I took this photo at a random eyewear retailer in Melbourne Central.

The list of darling brands over expanding is long. And invariably it leads to the same place – over exposure, brand erosion and ultimate financial decline. And Tiffany & Co is about to enter the realm of it’s own undoing if the eyewear foray is any indication of future brand plans.

In publicly traded stocks as Tiffany & Co is – management are never satisfied with solid return on investment. They tend to have an unrealistic hope of something different – to outperform the market. Especially when they have done this for a number of years previously. (Tiffany & Co has been a share market darling through the 1990’s and early 2000’s) Management & investors alike soon develop a false sense of infallibility. And so when growth in the brands traditional categories and channels wanes – the brand extension tomfoolery begins.

Irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand is omnipresent for uber successful brands. This most often ends in the same result – diminished brand equity in the core part of the business, and eventually declining revenue.

The naysayers would now be getting ready to provide examples like Armani, D&G and Versace who are all selling eyewear. Truth be told, none of said brands have the allure and history of a Tiffany & Co. The Tiffany brand is clearly stepping down and over extending in the chase for growth as the share market investors demands.

This blog entry is more about success than start ups. It’s also about what happens when public pressure influences strategy, about the difference on decisions with multiple owners (shareholders & fund managers) versus being run by a single minded smart person or a handful of smart people. But when you start up starts to rock, or you hit the big time remember this parable.

Not only rice

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Kai – sent me the following visual of a Melbourne Rice Bar:

Was it just in case we’re were’nt sure if they sold drinks as well?

Maybe it would have been more interesting if they said ‘Rice bar’ – only rice, nothing except rice dishes, we are the rice experts…