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IMARKETING REPORT 06.18.02:
>> When did a promotion to CEO become the signal that you're going to
get canned?
Good morning execs,
Licensing. It's definitely not the easiest
subject to tie into iMarketing, however
this year's Licensing 2002 @ Javitz was
very very cool. The industry itself, at $120+
billion, is no joke. But when most people
think of licensing, they think of toys and
corporate brands. Well, guess what?
Licensing is the management of brand
equity. And the only real assets in licensing
are intangible. So I got to thinking, and
it occurred to me that just because you
don't have a sock puppet representing
your corporate brand doesn't mean that
you don't have something worth licensing.
If licensing is the management of brand
equity, that means that your brand con-
notates some sort of value, whether
emotional or otherwise, to consumers.
The Trump name appears on many
buildings, not because Trump actually
owns them all, but because it connotates
affluence and Trump consumers enjoy
that connotation. If you publish content
towards a specific niche, then your com-
pany/publication name connotates autho-
rity in the niche you cater to. So why
don't you see Wall Street Journal diamond
watches? The opportunity to extend your
brand into tangible products and services
that don't connect with your consumers'
use of your brands and lifestyles may
cause your brand to loose some of that
brand equity. When selecting how to
license your brand, it is important to
manage how it is being used and if it
completely adheres to the values your
brand represents, the way your consu-
mers interact with your brand, and if it
continues to be a part of your consumer's
lifestyles.
CONTENTS
1. BRANDS&INSIGHTS: Marketing Network TV
2. CONSUMERFOCUS: iMarketing Continues to Be Defined,
Tactics Gain Value
3. MEDIA&CONTENT: Dayparting Trend Continues
4. MGMT&OPS: Content Still King
QUESTIONS? See business information below
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: Don't be greedy, pass this REPORT on.
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1. BRANDS&INSIGHTS: Marketing Network TV
Disney taps all resources to hype ABC,
who's decline in ratings has caused a
decline in stock. CBS taps VIACOM
resources, like Blockbuster, for in-store
promos touting new programming. NBC
goes wireless with Mazingo network.
So much synergy, so late. Being part
of large corporate families that own
multiple media platforms was supposed
to deliver this sort of synergy to advertisers.
Instead, the media companies are tapping
into their own resources in a mad rush
to keep audiences from cable and as
young as possible. I guess they figured
that if they can prove to advertisers that
cross-platforming works, more advertisers
would be willing to take advantage of
them. But the real underlying trend about
all this marketing being done by TV cos
is that it indicates the next priority for
media companies, as they fight for our
attention.
BOTTOM LINE: In last week's RE-
PORT, I mentioned how consumer media
habits have changed as a result of the
many choices they have in what to enjoy
and how to enjoy it. As consumer choices
increase, established media companies
must promote their content in order to
continue to attract a large enough audience
to command high prices from other mar-
keters that want to reach them or trim
down to satisfy the needs of a few loyal
consumers and niche aud marketers.
READ MORE:
http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Calendar-X!ArticleDetail-62446,00.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000041684jun14.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=entertainmentnews&StoryID=1087509
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2. CONSUMERFOCUS: iMarketing Continues to Be Defined,
Tactics Gain Value
"It was in the interest of everyone using
the common pasture to exploit it maximally.
Each herdsman could benefit by adding
another cow, but when all the herdsmen
acted this way, as they inevitably would,
the benefit of the commons was lost to
everyone." If our consciousness is the
commons, and advertisers are herdsman,
guess what folks - your ads aren't having
any affect anymore. iMarketing was
developed to be an alternative way to talk
to your consumers and get your message
across in a less cluttered environment.
It utilizes communication tools available
only online to interact with your consumers
more effectively than just waiting for
them to click on an ad. "More than 41
million people used at least one of the
four major instant messaging applications
during the month of May, according to
the latest report from Nielsen/NetRatings.
That number represents nearly 40 percent
of the active Internet surfing population".
But just having an effective strategy to
talk with your consumers isn't enough.
You need to have a presence online they
can interact with. The question then
is, how do you know if your presence
is effective? By testing usability and
brand opinion, another function of
iMarketing. By surveying and tapping
your consumers' willingness to try new
things, you can "uncover how customers
use a Web site and how their experiences
affect feelings about the parent company."
BOTTOM LINE: "'General site design
and performance how fast it takes to
load will color the brand,' [said Mr.
Michael Moon, president of the consulting
and research company Gistics Inc.]
'Many customers will infer what it
means to be in the relationship with a
company for its design, navigation and
performance.'" Using the internet is
better than using any other medium
because of the amount of interaction
you can achieve with your consumers.
The trick is getting your communication
strategy and user experience so good,
your consumer will become attached
to your brand, not repelled. And remem-
ber, the only reason the internet wasn't
a viable medium when it first got started
was because everyone wasn't online.
Today, over 180MM+ people in the US
are online, giving you all the market
you need to justify having an effective
iMarketing strategy and web site.
READ MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/02/business/yourmoney/02CONT.html
IQ NEWS DAILY BRIEFING: June 17, 2002 from adweek.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/12/business/media/12ADCO.html?todaysheadlines
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3. MEDIA&CONTENT: Dayparting Trend Continues
"Five online publishers have joined
forces to sell daytime ad space across
each other's sites, and AT&T Wireless
has signed on as the network's first
advertiser." Can you believe this?
Just last week, NYTimes
announced
their dayparting. Now, they've joined
forces with their competition to offer
"prime-time"-esque reach to advertisers,
with prime-time being the mornings,
when people are arriving to work and
reading their news online. Remember,
last week I argued that what TV considers
prime-time has to be reconsidered since
consumers aren't bound by media
schedules anymore. How ironic that
rather than get a disproportunate amount
of audience share during an 8-10p time
slot, the audience has dispersed through-
out the day. No, this doesn't necessarily
kill soaps, since it's basically different
audiences, however, it kills my argument
that consumers aren't on any set schedule
anymore.
BOTTOM LINE: Rather than spending
your time trying to set a schedule that
you want your consumers to follow, set
a schedule around their habits. At one
point, TV companies realized that lots
of viewers tuned in after work, came
up with better programming and prime-
time was born. Now, this new network
has realized that they have a potentially
large audience share, comparable to
TV, and they are working to tap into it
in order to receive larger advertiser bud-
gets.
READ MORE:
IQ NEWS DAILY BRIEFING: June 17, 2002 from adweek.com
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4. MGMT&OPS: Content Still King
As proven time and again, all the fancy
technology and marketing in the world
won't matter if your content sucks. It
seems that this new breed of content
publisher understands, tailoring their
content for how consumers actually
use it, rather than for how they would
like their content used. In all media, we
see a trend where businesses are chan-
ging the way they operate based on how
consumers interact with their brands,
especially content-related brands. Not
only are schedules being changed to
accomodate the consumer, but the way
the content is presented has changed
fundamentally to be useful, rather than
just there. This change has also made
content valuable enough to charge regu-
lar consumers to access it. Content
has always had some value, but typically
to the advertisers that want to reach its
users. But as media businesses under-
stand their consumers and the way they
interact with their content better, they
realize that niche + community are the
keys for survival.
BOTTOM LINE: It's like any other
industry, if you have a crappy product,
it won't sell. If the product is good, you
don't even need marketing. Content is
no different. The problem that content
distributors have always faced however
is when enough people don't enjoy the
content to justify the costs of distributing
it to the entire audience. (i.e. Suck.com,
the show "BULL" on TNT, Life Magazine).
But as content distributors accept and
adopt the niche model, and eventually
learn how to do dynamic pricing of their
content on a per user basis, the costs of
distributing content to audiences as small
as several thousand people becomes
easily covered by the profits generated
from charging this smaller base to produce
the content.
READ MORE:
http://www.btobonline.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=9259
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/13/technology/circuits/13SURF.html
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