LupRocks Gossip

The System at Play

The idea expressed in this video, courtesy of PR-Squared via Slate,  is so ridiculous that I found myself giggling while watching it.  It also reminded me that I wanted to see The Women.  I (the consumer) am reminded of the product in question while being entertained.  Guerrilla marketing is at play, and the goal of the marketer is reached. 

Whether or not this video is actually affiliated with the movie The Women, the flash message at the end of this video claims it is not, it still provides a good example of a successful (as PR-Squared points out it is "making the rounds") marketing campaign.  That being said, while "faking this" is a genius marketing tactic, actually putting this into practice is sort of cruel.

There must be a better solution than just waiting

Waiting in line at the security checkpoint at O’Hare airport yesterday, I could not help but notice some improvements they have made. For those of you that haven’t traveled recently, let me catch you up. In order for me to get through security without being stopped, I have to take off my shoes, belt, and sweater, take my laptop out of the case and put it in its own bin, and take my plastic zip-lock bag containing my less than 3oz bottles of liquid out of my luggage and put it through separately. Once I am through security with boarding pass in hand, I have to get dressed again, and pack everything back in its proper bags before I can be on my way to the gate. Add in the amount of people (a lot) who do not know the rules and have to walk back through a second time, and you can imagine the delay, and worst the cluster of people bent over (not a pretty site) trying to get their shoes back on right in the way of where you need to walk.  

 

The airport did not make the rules about the shoes, laptops, and liquids, but they did what they could to adapt to the situation they were given. Since last month, they put a new area of benches with tables outside of the checkpoint where people can put their things together and put their shoes back on. It made things a lot less clumsy and crowded. It made me, the flyer (customer), less frustrated with the process. 

 

Being able to adapt to the situation at hand is a necessary component to keeping your customers happy. We can’t control the economy, the price of gold, of the leather your vendor didn’t ship you, but we can react and adapt to keep our customers happy. And the real key is to figure out what adaptations you need to make much faster than it took the airports to figure it out. 

I said no!

One more thing about options...

Opt in marketing can be difficult to execute. So, it is forgivable if you have to go a different route. That being said, Opt-out options should be mandatory for any marketing campaign you send out. I refer to “opt out” here in the larger sense.

If you send an email through an email sending system like MyEmma or an RSS feed that your readers have subscribed to, then there is a built in opt out or unsubscribe button (link) at the bottom of the page. That’s easy. When it is you sending out the press release/update/campaign through your Outlook (mail merge included) or Gmail, and someone responds “not interested,” “please take me off your list,” “I do not cover this,” or even “I don’t like you” then it becomes your duty to take that person off your media list. They have opted out, so let them do so peacefully.

I know it is hard to remove a really good contact from your list,  but I assure you it will be much more detrimental to your campaign when that person comes back a second time, twice as annoyed, and demands to be taken off your list. “I said no!”

It’s not all about the Benjamin’s

I know the economy is bad. I know people are shopping less. I know people can’t afford the luxury goods they could yesterday. It sucks. Short of painting a happy smile on a pretty bleak situation, there is not much to say to designers to make them feel better about business being slow, or dare I say non-existent. 

I can offer two things to help. First of all, these economic trends tend to follow the pendulum rule. We will eventually dip back up. Second, I was reading Seth Godin’s blog who said this in a post about money:

“No, people (most people) don't do things only for money. There's usually a minimum threshold that gets someone to pick a job and stick with it, but beyond that, the things we do are expressions of who we are and what we love and the impact we wish to make, not selfish acts designed to earn a few extra bucks. (No one paid you to read this post, I bet).”

I liked this post (read in full), and especially the part about doing what we love. You design because it is in your heart to design. Someone buys your product, because it evokes a feeling in them, and that feeling leads them to purchase. While no one will argue that money is one of the ultimate goals here - and necessary for survival - just remember while you’re waiting that you have other forces and factors that make it worth waiting. 

 

3 more things to consider

Crosby had three great suggestions for leveraging press:

1. When you find the photo of the necklace in question, get permission to use it. Or request a photo or film still directly from the stylist or production company. With that in hand, you are golden! Send out information about the piece with the photo to fashion and celebrity bloggers.

2. Send out a notice to your email newsletter about the piece, highlight the celebrity connection on your site, and if you have a blog/myspace/or facebook page (or all of the above!) share the posts from bloggers writing about the movie.

3. Email the blogger directly and say that you are owner/buyer/whatever of the brand of necklace/watch/whatever and that you are so excited to see that the item made it into the movie. Ask if they would mind updating their post with the purchase information of your item.

 

Bravo takes a hit while Runmay keeps moving

Project Runway started last night, and it looks like it will be another good season. 

Knowing I have another Runway enthusiast in the office, I was eager to hear her thoughts on last night’s season opener, so I swiveled around in my chair to get the scoop. She told me what she thought, and then became the fifth person to tell me the rumor that Bravo is trying to sabotage this season in an effort to send the show off to Lifetime slightly damaged. Bravo is getting bad press for no reason.

First of all, it will never work. Grey’s Anatomy and American Idol both recovered from their worst seasons with higher ratings and great seasons that followed, because these shows all comes with a loyal and addicted fanbase. And even if Bravo somehow manages to do its worse, Runway’s cult-like fan base will tune in just as eagerly to Lifetime next year with out a second thought. 

Which brings me to my next point: what is the worse they can really do? The Bravo network changed the airtime of the show from 10 to 9, and the new season received far less annoying reminders that the season was beginning. News flash Bravo – most fans of the show have Tivo or DVR and they had the new season set to record automatically so their was no need for the reminder, and the time change will not matter to people who probably don’t watch it until an hour after it airs anyways. 

What’s next? Bravo will cut back on their excessive reruns? Again, not really a low blow. Ultimately, there is little that can be done to bring down the good Runway name. The least they can do is minimize any sort of bad press over it, because the ultimate lesson here is that rumors create bad press if they are spread enough, and the truth no longer becomes the point.

Free R

Everyone knows what PR is, and almost everyone knows what PR costs, but what about Free-R? A term probably used most widely by the ones dispensing it, free-R is PR or marketing that you get for free.

There are many ways to get Free-R, but mainly it happens when you are pushy about asking questions to people you don’t pay, or (the better way) you are lucky and the universe sort of hands it to you.  Example: Back in the days of the Sex and the City television show, some clever jewelry designers tapped into the SATC message board and "anonymously" dropped the name of some of the jewelry that was seen on "Carrie." This low-effort tactic led to several direct sales of those and similar pieces by the designers.

Try to avoid the first way of getting Free-R, and just hope for the organic/lucky method. 

Organic/Lucky: You know you have lent jewelry to a production, and you know they have used it. For the months that you know the film is in production leading up to when the film is released to the public you should have a Google Alert set for that actor’s name. Set your Google alert for blogs only. Then Google will email you anytime a blogger posts about that actor. Follow the links, and you may just find a picture that some celebrity stalker took of the actor in your jewelry. 

Now here is where you come in: Comment on the blog! It is even more effective if you do it anonymously from a different email (which you can create for free with gmail), like “who’s jewelry is she wearing?” Then a few days later, you can reply from your email answering the question – “oh that happens to be the work of (insert name here).” This gets your name, and usually URL, up on the blog. 

(Google alerts and Gmail accounts are very easy to set up, free, and great tools to be familiar with. You can set up both from the Google homepage.) 

 

Silence is a Virtue

Seth Godin (a marketing and branding genius) writes the following in one of his daily blogs:

“If the best thing you can think of is a bad pun, random capitalization and a weak photo (salt and pepper included!) it's probably better to do nothing at all. Nothing at all is actually the biggest difference between professional and amateur marketers. The pros are better at being quiet.”

I’ll indulge a bit further…Just because your brother in law’s friend’s daughter is offering you free graphic design work, doesn’t mean you should accept it or that it is good. Just because you have the matching bracelet, ring, and earrings to the necklace being featured, doesn’t mean you need to show them all together, all at once. Just because the necklace you want to display at the next trade show comes on a 16’’, 18’’, 20’’, and 22’’chain doesn’t mean they should all be layered on one neck form. Just because you designed twenty different settings for engagement rings, doesn’t mean you should display them all if you don’t have the diamonds (or even CZ’s) to fill them.

Free work does not equal good work.
Clutter is a turnoff.  
It’s obvious the necklace is made in several chain-length options.
Never put a semi-mount on display. 

Follow Seth’s advice. Be a pro. Less is often more, and always more intriguing. “Silence is a virtue.”