Scanning While Drinking or Dancing with Codes

You’ve seen them, these intricately marked Rorschach-like squares, next to merchandise in stores and on business cards, posters, or brochures. They’re called QR codes. The QR stands for "quick response." More powerful than traditional bar codes, these mobile tagging devices, when scanned with a smartphone, provide you with links, geo-coordinates, text; they're like a magic doorway to more information in a digital world. Developed in Japan for use in vehicle manufacturing, specifically inventory and supply chain management, QR codes initially gained rapid popularity in Europe and the U.S. But their adoption into the main stream while steady hasn’t been frenetic, for a couple of reasons. 
 
First, not everyone has a smartphone. Consider stats released on March 6 by comScore for mobile usage. One of the notable data points from the report is that for the three-month average period ending January 2012, over 100 million U.S. mobile subscribers used smartphones out of a total of 234 million Americans using mobile devices in general. That’s about 57% that can’t scan QR codes with their mobile device even if they want to. That certainly would slow use.
 
A second reason for slow adoption is that there are some other cooler, more sophisticated technologies out there like near field communication (NFC) and mobile visual search (MVS). With MVS, you use your smartphone’s camera to shoot a picture. Within seconds, the MVS application captures the image and provides information or the opportunity to purchase. MVS is still in its early days, so, in addition to requiring your smartphone, it works best with landmarks, books, wine, DVDs, and artwork. To get more detail, check out Jon Barocas’ February article in Mashable on Why QR Codes Won’t Last.
 
The other technology seen encroaching on QR codes is near field communication. NFC establishes a set of standards to enable radio communication between smartphones by touching the phones together or bringing them into close proximity. As I understand it,Google Wallet is an example. This financial transaction capability makes NFC more multifaceted and is a key differentiator from QR codes. This short video shows you how NFC works.  
 
The big difference is that you can’t make these technologies (NFC or MVS) easily at home, where with QR codes you can. In fact, you can make your own QR code right now at QRStuff.com and create an offer for whatever your heart desires. For the small business person this generates some great sales opportunities. For example, you can display your personalize QR code in your storefront windows, advertise different incentives for customers like a free latte with purchase, promote a free home evaluation on your business card, or design an icing message atop those cupcakes. Think of your QR codes as an interactive device that intrigues and then engages your smartphone customers, increasing the chance that they’ll remember your product and buy. If QR codes don’t last it really doesn’t matter, as you’re not looking at a huge investment; you’re just having some fun today and making some money. 
 
Look at what happened when Heineken recently used QR codes at a music festival where everybody attending could have their own code printed on a sticker and wear it. These QR stickers carried personal messages that ultimately helped people break the ice during the event (asking a stranger for a scan does break the ice). The interactivity continued afterwards as festival goers uploaded photos of themselves and their codes to Facebook and connected with friends they’d just met. Here’s how it all unfolded. Check out “almost flying man."

Is Your Phone Dumb?

There’s certainly a lot of hype surrounding the growth of smartphones and especially Apple iPhones, but before you are charmed into spending precious marketing dollars on either, here’s a reality check. Of mobile phones sold worldwide in 2011 as reported by mobiThinking, 94% were not made by Apple, and as reported by comScore, 56% were not smartphones. They were “dumb” phones.  

Dumb phones are feature phones, a generic term, according to Wikipedia, that’s applied to all mobile handsets that aren’t smartphones. Feature phones address the market for customers who don’t want or can’t afford a smartphone. Also, what might have been considered a smartphone a few years ago could be a feature phone today. Obviously because of the rapidly evolving technology, phone features are changing fast. As I understand it, a feature phone might have a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a portable media player, and include some “smart” features like a camera, touchscreen, GPS, or Wi-Fi access. Sounds pretty smart to me. (Does anyone else hear the crunching sound of products converging?)

ComScore reports that 44% of all mobile subscribers (42% in the U.S.) now use smartphones. This means that 56% of all mobile subscribers are using feature phones. So it appears that the real competition in the bid for your marketing dollars is between smart phones and feature phones with the pivotal moment happening when smartphone sales overtake feature phone sales. Hope you’re patient, because we’re not seeing that event any time soon.

Yes, it is true that smartphone sales in 2011 grew worldwide at 61.3%, and feature phones started to decline at -2.9%, but there were still well over a billion feature phones sold in 2011, outselling smartphones by more than 2:1. This means that for every person who buys a smartphone, two will buy a feature phone.

As reported by IDC’s Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst, "Feature phones maintain their appeal on the basis of price and ease of use. At the same time, feature phones are fighting to maintain their market share. To meet the challenge, feature phones are becoming more like smartphones, incorporating mobile Internet and third-party applications.” While this may not stem the smartphone tide, according to Llamas, it should “slow down the rate at which smartphones are selected over feature phones." (I thought that crunching noise wasn’t coming from the blender).

What’s a smart business person to do? My suggestion is that you take a good look at your existing customer base. Maybe a mobile phone survey, even an outbound phone call to a random sample, is a good first step. I know “talking to your customers” is my go-to position but before you allocate dollars to develop an iPhone app, you really should have a handle on how many of your customers have iPhones. If your customers are the salt of the earth, you may find that they’re feature-phone owners, in which case you’ll want to know what mobile manufactures and what features.

My closing thought is that 2011 was a game-changing year for the mobile industry. Smartphones entered the market big time, tablets emerged, and consumers, like you and me, started integrating mobile behaviors into our lives. It’s a new dawn and a new day. But we’re all embracing these different technologies at different rates, so be sure that where and how you’re marketing your products and services is in sync with your customers’ personal and social adoption of these platforms. Otherwise you’ll be wasting money.

How Apple's Chinese Workers are like Oompa-Loompas

In Ronald Dahl’s adventure Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa-Loompas escape from their natural predators in Loompaland by accepting Willy Wonka’s invitation to work at his factory. There, these short-statured, orange-skinned people live happily, free from being eaten by the Whangdoodles, Hornswogglers, and Snozzywangers. They sing songs, make chocolate, and get paid in their favorite food, cacao beans.  I like to pretend that my smartphone is made by Oompa-Loompas in that socially responsible factory. 

But that’s not the case as we discovered in a recent New York Times article in which Apple received a large black eye for manufacturing their iPads and iPhones in China in what was described as troubling working conditions, characterized by low wages and excessive overtime. Of course, Apple isn’t the only manufacturer stooping to these practices and sourcing to low bidders like Foxconn. HP also uses this manufacturer and, in fact, I’m hard pressed to find an electronic device marketed in the U.S. that isn’t made by workers stacked in tech dorms in China. 

So does this mean consumers should stop buying iPads? No, but it does create a hurdle for Apple devotees, who don’t want to disguise their devices or be perceived as loyalists to a big bad company. So what actions will they take? The answer is in the October 2011 Cone/Echo Global CR Opportunity Study, which reported that consumers worldwide (and they surveyed over 10,000 people) are demanding a higher level of social responsibility from the companies they buy from. Many reported using their loyalty and purchasing power to advance these demands. As Apple’s consumers utilize their power to press for the company to evaluate external suppliers like Foxconn, what actions do you think the company will take and how will those actions impact sourcing and manufacturing in China?  We’ll watch and see. 

Corporate responsibility critics complain that the time and money spent “doing good” detracts from the business mission, which is to sell people the products they want and make money doing it. But Doug Guthrie, (no relation), Dean of the George Washington University School of Business, in his Forbes article, Corporate Social Responsibility: Cheaper Than a Pension Fund, provides a historical case for corporations leading the way to the rise of CSR. “They (companies) put the agenda into play in the first place, actively defining the system and what constituted socially responsible corporate behavior.” 

As evidenced by the negative reaction to China’s manufacturing practices, the Cone/Echo survey, and Dr. Guthrie’s educated view, brand marketers (and their CEOs) should realize that CSR does not stand on its own as an act of altruism or as a public relations stunt. CSR is a method of creating and maintaining brand legitimacy and it impacts every aspect of the business even vendor employment practices, as the Apple “incident” has shown. 

The moral of the story is to take CSR seriously and examine your company’s actions at every audience touch point. Be prepared to discuss and defend what the public sees and perceives, remembering that customers today are more engaged and knowledgeable than any other time in capitalism’s history. If there’s a weak point, fix it, because the value of that action will pay off in brand credibility...which will mean dollars to the bottom line. 

Also don’t discount Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory as only a child’s story. It is a great example of the benefit of corporate social responsibility because by protecting the Oompa-Loompas in his factory, Willy Wonka achieved three key goals. First, he defined a strong platform for branding the uniqueness of his product, integrating the company identity with his rare employees. Chocolate made exclusively by Oompa-Loompas. Second, his actions portrayed the company as a benefactor and we all know that philanthropy is a “good” thing. And third, he created an exceptional economic advantage, significantly lowering his manufacturing costs and giving him a considerable edge over his competitors. His workers were housed in dormitories on-site and got paid beans. 

The AD That Won The Super Bowl!

Yes, we all know the outcome of the New York Giants' battle with the New England Patriots, but there's another Super Bowl score.  One that gives us the ranking for the top 10 commercials. This year for the first time that involves USA Today’s Ad Meter and the forces of Facebook, and those results will be in on Tuesday evening.

We all know that Super Bowl commercials are as entertaining as the game itself. What you might not realize is that competition for top choice contenders is equally as fierce, but it hasn’t always been that way. In 1989, USA Today, in an effort to build brand awareness and advertising revenue, introduced a very smart marketing strategy. They took a small panel of people, put them in a room with a meter, and told them to rate the Super Bowl ads on a scale from one to 10 during the game.

These rankings were published in USA Today the next day, headlining Monday’s paper, and quickly were re-broadcast by other media outlets becoming the focal point for morning TV news and radio talk shows. And just like that, USA’s Ad Meter results were adopted as the marketing gospel for who “won” the Super Bowl.

For corporations who are investing something like $100,000 a second, USA’s ad score card is taken seriously. One epic example from 2007 is when CareerBuilder’s Big Game ad didn’t make the Ad Meter’s top ten, and that Monday morning right after the Super Bowl they put their advertising business up for an agency review. An Ad Meter certainty, as Rob Schwartz, TBWA/Chiat Day Chief Creative Officer, recently described it to Ad Age editor, Michael Learmonth: “If you’re No. 32 on the Ad Meter, better put your resumes together.”

The reality is that top placement in USA’s Ad Meter still bestows privileged status (and longer-term employment) to the agencies and companies that produce these advertisements. But this year it seems that the digital age, where consumer research, media information, TV ratings, online intelligence, and mobile measurement are part of a marketer’s daily routine, has brought a change in USA’s Ad Meter evaluation methodology.

In addition to selecting two consumer panels in two secret locations, USA opened up the voting to you and me on Facebook. Yes, we have a chance to actually take part in the 2012 USA TODAY Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter. There’s still time to view, rate, and share the Super Bowl ads with your friends. Voting started at kickoff on Sunday, but it doesn’t end until Tuesday, February 7 at 6:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. PST. And, according to the website, America's pick is listed after at 10 p.m. EST on February 7 at this address.

Having a chance to vote is certainly great fun; just, two thoughts on the value of those top picks. The first one is that the only list that really matters is the one that’s relevant to you. Jeff Louis points out some great alternatives to USA’s Ad Meter picks in his recent article,Top 11 Super Bowl Ads of the 21st Century. Second thought is: remember that no matter what the ratings are, the real difference an ad makes is in how many people actually buy the product. And yes, there are ways to figure that out, but that’s for another post. Now go vote — no telling where this election methodology will lead!

Written for Talent Zoo, published 2-4-2012

Brand-Jacked!

Do you remember Larry, a.k.a. “The Target”? His photograph was taken with his mobster sidekicks, Johnny, “The Face”, and Freddy, “The Fish." The photos were part of a branding campaign I worked on (yes, it was a while ago, so don’t rub it in) for the DayGlo Color Corporation. The issue was that their brand was being hijacked. Brand jacking is what happens when other folks start using your brand’s name for their stuff. For example, Kleenex is both a tissue and a brand. In Europe, when you vacuum your carpet, you’re “Hoover-ing." In DayGlo’s case, of course, florescent paint was being called “dayglo." Linguistic experts thrill at this because it is proof that our language is dynamic as new words and language patterns are forever evolving. But for corporations and causes, with the growing number of social channels, this word metamorphosis is a mixed blessing. Brand jacking can be problematic but also contribute significantly to awareness. We've all read about the negative side, like when a politician or celebrity has had a fake social media account created for them by a malicious fan or their personal accounts hacked. There are web addresses, too, changed ever so slightly from the company’s own address, containing content your mom wouldn’t approve of. I also read recently how protesters are using Amazon’s open review and tagging model to highlight unpopular products or issues. Probably most common is negative comments on Facebook. Also, see Turnier’s article "When Twitter Hashtags Attack." These items and more give brand managers insomnia as they seek positive ways to deal with negative images. The good side of brand jacking is that you’ve definitely cut through the clutter when the consumer sees fit to adopt your product as the name for the thing. You are the brand. You’re what the consumer expects and you influence how they evaluate similar products. That’s brand nirvana in my book. In DayGlo’s case, the brand has become the word and something pretty unique happened that the company didn’t sanction. Back in 2006 on college campuses in Florida, the world’s largest paint party began. It was called DAYGLOW. Close spelling, same sounding, but not exactly the same moniker as DayGlo Color Corporation. Of course, consumers aren’t paying any attention to the slight spelling change. What’s a “W” anyway, except a way around some legalese (I’m betting)? It's still going on today. DAYGLOW, the event, promises high-energy music, art, dance, and PAINT in one mind-blowing performance where dayglo, no I mean, fluorescent paint, is sprayed onto a waiting audience. What a way to engage young consumers in a positive brand experience. The text between two girlfriends would read, “Covered in dayglo and dancing my a-- off." I sympathize with DayGlo as this scenario is like giving my daughter the car keys. It is difficult to let go of your brand and allow your fans to take control; but in this case, DayGlo the company was never in control. They were completely removed from the equation. The fans were followers of the performance experience, not the paint. I know these fans aren’t differentiating between any fluorescent paint and the real DayGlo paint, yet I can’t help but believe that their participation and enthusiasm is instrumental in popularizing the paint and the company. And when, during the concert, they’re sprayed with paint, that’s a fun-filled introduction to a product they wouldn’t have thought twice about before. It also makes me consider the power of crowdsourcing in creating awareness. Maybe the lesson here is: Get noticed, and invite your brand to a party. What do you think? If you’re wondering what happened to Larry, The Target — he met his demise in a shoot-out in his hometown, Cleveland, Ohio. He probably would have been okay if his fashion sense had been better. At the time of the shooting he was wearing a long overcoat. It was DayGlo pink.

Measuring Honest Responses, Honestly

I was wallowing in the word use; “measureable marketing campaigns”, “customized engagement”, “tracking leads”.  These descriptors that you lavished in your job description all resonate with my beliefs and my competencies in defining your customer as key to business growth.  Then you mentioned an understanding of NPS scores.

I know about them.  I worked with GE and I own the stock.  So you are aware of the controversy over the “likely to recommend question” as an accurate predictor of business growth.  Also I’ve personally tested, granted a while ago in graduate school, the 11-pt variability scale used in this testing and didn’t find it as accurate as the 7-pt Likert scale.  But the list of other variables that impacts results goes well beyond 11-pts into self-report over oral report; individual environments over group and so forth.

At the end, I will give you that NPS scores are a generally acceptable method of translating human response into business action.  Key here is acceptable and business action.  (When I’m asked to recommend a strategy my preference is to develop a road map from research first.)  So yes, I could make that work.

An obstacle to your initiating dialog with me won’t be my research acumen, ability to engage the customer, or deep marketing experience.  But it may be that most of what I know about luxury goods comes from experience with this consumer segment in the financial services community and from hanging out with rich people, primarily a very few selected family members and friends.  If only my work experience included fabrics, fashion and design, I could drop a brand name here like Verace, Gucci, Chanel, Perry Ellis (Tom Ford).

Oh well, take a look at my resume, I’d love to speak with you about this very large and exciting opportunity.  Best to call me on my cell.  Chow!