Learn Something Every Day

Brandchannel | Recession Lesson: To Target Teens, Target Moms

2009-10-21T09:19:00.000-05:00

Brandchannel | Recession Lesson: To Target Teens, Target Moms

I don't have a teen yet, but it's coming soon.

If Aeropostale makes subtle changes at store level to be more Mom-friendly, someone else is going to target teens shopping alone. Teens are going to shop where the music is loud, and they can be seen by their friends. Moms, aunts and grandmas are going to buy gifts for the teens at last year's trendy shop because the missed the switch to the latest trend.

That's how it was when I was young, and I'm preparing myself for how it's going to be with my soon-to-be teenager.

Twitter for Traffic?

2009-08-31T09:18:00.005-05:00

How can we use Twitter to get out of traffic jams more quickly? Or avoid them altogether?

Would it be possible to tweet from your phone when traffic slows down and look at real time updates from people in the same area? It would be helpful to know if you should get off the interstate and take an alternate route or sit tight for five minutes because it will clear.

Not enough Danger

2009-07-09T11:51:00.002-05:00

Obviously my kids don't have enough danger in their lives. They probably don't have enough messes either, let alone power tools.

What can I say? I love the mouse.

2008-12-13T10:39:00.001-06:00

Honesty

2006-07-31T09:53:00.000-05:00

I once took a negotiations class and commented to the instructor, "I'm an honest person. I want to make a fair profit on my products or services, and I want my customers to get a good value. If I work with people who feel the same way, wouldn't most negotiations be easy? Or am I going to be taken for a ride every time?" She told me that I was naive. "Negotiation is part of the game, part of the deal. You have to hold some cards to make the best possible profit."

I'm sure the instructor is mostly right. However web communication has allowed large, impersonal companies to make honesty and trust part of their brand. We can get consumer reviews, both positive and negative on most electronics and travel sites.

Funny, I think that's why the local hardware store, butcher and insurance agent prospered in the past. They were trusted to provide the best advice and products at a fair price. If they didn't, all the neighbors told you about it.

Lactivists

2006-07-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

When my first child was born, I didn't really expect to become a "lactivist." But I did breastfeed my kids pretty much anywhere they were hungry. I was discreet and people around me probably didn't know I was nursing a child.

The marketing and public relations efforts around breastfeeding in the last several years have created the wrong kind of uproar. While medical experts agree that breastfeeding is absolutely the best nutrition for babies, there is always a group (usually of women) pointing out that bare breasts make people uncomfortable. And that formula is a reasonable alternative so that people don't have to be uncomfortable.

There doesn't seem to be the same kind of dialogue around other health issues. Most of us think it's OK for smokers to be pushed outside to protect the health of non-smokers. But no one should be made uncomfortable in order to insure a baby's health? We shouldn't expect a social change so people accept breastfeeding as a normal, healthy common occurrence anywhere babies are welcome?

It's a challenge to make the dialogue sensitive to mothers who choose to formula feed. Everyone has to find their own balance in childrearing. Formula is a "good enough" choice for a lot of families when breastfeeding would have been too stressful for one reason or another.

More of the Same in Web Usability

2006-06-16T14:56:00.000-05:00

A recent book by the usability expert Jakob Nielsen (and Hoa Loranger) discusses the most common web site problems and how they've changed over the last 12 years. I went back and checked some recent client sites to make sure we hadn't committed any of the worst sins. It's amazing how many of the same problems still plague web designers. We are still too in love with our designs and sacrifice ease of use for a great look.

Presentation Prowess

2006-03-22T10:07:00.000-06:00

Dick Hardt has an amazing presentation style. Even when the content got technical at the end, I couldn't stop watching.

The presentation is about digital identity, about how can we get the equivalent of a photo ID for our online transactions and relationships.

I found myself thinking about corporate identity during the beginning of the presentation. How do we create the same kind of trust for a corporate brand that comes with a photo ID? It's not a technology question. It's a marketing question.

I know how we try to do it. With corporate graphics set to specific standards, with consistent quality of experience in customer interactions, with the tone and manner of communications. But it takes time and trust, there isn't a third party issuing an ID guaranteeing a trustworthy company.

Slacking off at work

2006-03-17T15:13:00.000-06:00

I thought I was doing so well by checking my email every hour or so no matter what else I'm doing. Actually, I can't help it. When the little icon on my dock starts bouncing, I just have to know what important news has been delivered to my inbox.

I feel unbelievably lazy if I'm "only" watching TV and it's before 9:00 on a week night. I usually have to be reading a magazine, a book or fiddling on my computer at the same time.

Turns out, I should be more focused and also more relaxed. Great ideas will come to me while lounging in the bathtub. (Who lounges? My luxury is turning on the massage setting on the showerhead while shaving my legs)

Multitasking, while second nature to most moms, is not the best way to innovate. I'll work on it.

The Best Medicine?

2005-07-29T13:40:00.000-05:00

Mars is looking to sell the good-for-you stuff in cocoa (flavanols) in the pharmaceuticals business.

The two Hershey's miniatures that I just ate probably aren't going to prevent a heart attack. (The flavanols are destroyed in the usual preparation of chocolate). It still sounds like good medicine to me.

Mommy Brain!

2005-07-28T10:36:00.000-05:00

My friend Renu, found this book review, which I'll have to add to my reading list. How does motherhood affect a women's ability to think, reason and make decisions?

When Morgan was born, I forgot the rest of the world existed for about 10 weeks. I was so focussed on caring for my newborn and doing everything just right, there just wasn't room for anything else.

When I returned to my job, Morgan was 3 months old. I realized what a one-track mind I'd had. It was a major transition, and for a while, I found it difficult to make even the simplest work-related decistions. I was overwhelmed. I relaxed my overmothering after a while, as most first-time Moms do.

Now, I have most of the family and work schedule in my head. Having a PDA doesn't hurt though. It's amazing how much more I need to remember (and usually do!). That must be Mommy Brain!

Finding bits and bunches of creativity

2005-07-26T09:04:00.000-05:00

Several years ago, not long after the birth of my second child, I realized that my brain had slowed to a crawl. At first I blamed motherhood and hormones for the loss of my "college word" vocabulary and multiplication tables. Running from full-time job to full-time motherhood didn't seem to help although I thought my brain was always working.

I decided that I needed to (correcting Apple's grammar here) start thinking differently. I used my brain at work and with my kids, but I didn't stretch it often enough. I didn't have enough opportunities to let my brain work hard on new problems or to read about interesting new ideas and discuss them with other people.

I took action. I started reading nonfiction for "fun". I searched for experts that encouraged creativity, not just in art, music and advertising, but in motherhood, lawn work and report writing. I returned to recreational reading too. Picking out books with no educational merit. I found I could sit in the same room with my husband in the evening (he has a bad TV remote habit), and not get frustrated as long as I had a book.

I recently read Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. Both interesting books with a little spark of creativity. Both also offer interesting insights on marketing. We don't always need to reach the most people, just the right people.

I'm saving Harry Potter, the Half-Blood Prince for vacation, so right now I'm reading Wicked. Aside from being an interesting novel. It's an exercise in vocabulary. I haven't been checking the dictionary regularly, but I probably should be. I'm never sure which words are part of the fantasy languages of the characters and which are just words I've never heard before (or lost to the hormones mentioned above)

I like getting bits of creative inspiration from a couple of web sites too. The link to Worthwhile is on my favorites at the right. The writers at Worthwhile focus on living more passionately in work, family and recreation. The Innovation Network has a bunch of creativity and innovation resources.

Tourism Blogging

2005-07-12T13:53:00.000-05:00

I don't travel much, but when I do, I prefer to have personal recommendations about where to eat and where to stay. Without recommendations, I'm probably sticking with the national chains.

The beauty of these new "unsponsored" tourism blogs is that they look like personal recommendations. The Milwaukee blogger at Play in the City was given coupons and discounted or free admissions, but her posts are not edited. She also gets a laptop, a digital camera and an internet connection, but she is not paid.

The Pennsylvania tourism office is featuring a bunch of blogs effectively highlighting the diverse experiences in the state. It's not clear what kind of compensation the bloggers are getting.

Ratings and recommendations are expected from travel sites. This new spin adds the latest trend and a face and voice to the recommendations.

Online Business Communication

2005-07-07T09:29:00.000-05:00

There is still a lot of efficiency that could be added to doing everyday business with small, local companies using online communication.

It's still not efficient to search for local real estate or contact a realtor online, at least here in Sheboygan. When we were looking for our house, I wished I could receive an automatic email when a house meeting our specifications came on the market. I wanted it to show pictures of the outside and inside of the house and allow me to download a PDF of the spec sheet. The realtors I talked to couldn't even email me spec sheets since they didn't have them electronically.

When we finally decided to build our house, the contractor did not have an email address. It would have been so efficient to email him our questions. It's nice to send questions and respond to them when it's convenient to me. Plus, I would have had a record of our conversations when questions came up.

We recently planted the lawn at our new house. I got frustrated when I couldn't see the equipment available at my local Grand Rental Station online. I wanted to rent the equipment from another company that listed the equipment online and responded promptly to my email questions. (Unfortunately, their equipment wasn't available when we needed it.)

I'm having similar frustrations with landscaping companies. I'd like to email my plans and plant list to a couple of suppliers, receive a quote, give them my credit card number and get a delivery. Currently not a possibility.

A few simple changes would have a positive impact on each of these businesses. Especially as people in my age and demographic become the buld of their customers.

Pay Per Click Advertising

2005-07-07T09:17:00.000-05:00

A lot of pay-per-click advertisers pay a specialized search marketing company to manage their keyword and bidding. That's probably a good idea if you have hundreds of keywords and spend thousands of dollars.

Local companies can manage a few keywords themselves (or ask their marketing partner to help them). PayPerClickSearchEngines.com gives an overview of how to get started. In niche markets, pay per click advertising is still relatively inexpensive. That makes it easy to test and play around with. Take a $50 budget and watch the effect on your web traffic.

I'm interested in how local consumer companies will be taking advantage of pay-per-click or pay-per-call advertising. I'm young enough to be in the habit of looking for local phone numbers and addresses online before checking the phonebook.

Here we go!

2005-07-06T15:16:00.000-05:00

I'm the official interactive expert at our agency. I do my best to keep up with trends that might help our clients. I've been interested in blogs since I was working at Bemis Manufacturing Co. (the world's largest manufacturer of toilet seats).

We've made recent recommendations to clients to monitor blogs in their industries.

It's time to take my own advice and start a blog of my own. I know that I've been slow picking up this trend, but I hope to start now sharing what I'm learning every day.