IMKTG REPORT August 27 2001

opportunities, monday august 27th, 2001

Greetings,

this tues-thurs is the
DCI CRM expo @ Javitz.
big deal. i'm going.
i'll let you know what
happened if you can't
make it.

so much to report...

just read.

CONTENTS:
1. ADVERTISING - to minorities
2. MANAGEMENT - customers always come first
3. MANAGEMENT 2 - the McDs fraud, prevention tips
4. WEBSITE - do you know your website's real value?
5. IDEA - UMBRELLAS's "R" US
6. MEDIA - fashion & subscriptions
7. HUMOR - MSN employs even the dead
8. PRIVACY - what to do
9. MUSIC - the power of HIPHOP

********* al berrios advertising *********

ADVERTISING: Census says
minorities have swelled
US pop. to all time highs.
Marketers knew this, but
Census 2000 has made them
increase investments into
agencies that understand
Latinos, Asians, Blacks,
and everything inbetween.
Why is this relevant?
General market agencies
loose money, b/c they don't
understand minorities.

bottom line: it's a
universal truth that
when you want special
work done right, don't
go to a general prac-
titioner. Going bankrupt,
go to bankruptcy lawyer.
Foot pains, your brain
surgeon is clueless.
Need internet marketing...
well, you know.

read more:
this week's Advertising Age

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********* al berrios management *********

MANAGEMENT: the new trend
is to appoint some person
"Chief Customer Officer"
to basically keep tabs
on what your consumers
want, relay that info
to the rest of the big
wigs, & address customer
issues. I mentioned once,
(opportunities, mon, aug
6th edition, management
section) that giving
someone a flashy title
doesn't mean they'll be
more effective. so my
question is, have corp's
even been listening to
customers all this time
w/o a "CCO" to tell them
what they're saying?
read this beaurocratic
b.s.: "A customer-centric
enterprise also needs
to form a cross-func-
tional open council;
conduct a pilot with
a small group of high-
value customers to
demonstrate the eco-
nomic benefits of such
an approach; create a
list of CRM operating
principles or tenets to
forge consistency in
interactions across
the entire company;
and, finally, establish
a 'voice of the customer'
feedback loop."

bottom line: all companies
claim to be consumer-centric.
Corporations throw gobs of
money at trying to under-
stand what their customers
are saying. So why aren't
they listening? If you,
the chief, prez, or vp
don't know each & every
customer segment by heart
or what they want, then
you also don't know why
they use your brand, and
i hate to say this, but
you're an idiot and you
should just quit, man.

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********* al berrios management 2 *********

MANAGEMENT 2: (or humor,
take your pick) you've
heard McD's was recently
the victim of a pyramid
fraud scheme conducted
internally by an employee
of McD's promo agency,
his friends, fam, & others
robbing McD's & contest
players of $13 mill during
5 yrs. McD's promptly
& correctly addressed this
public relations disaster
(yeah, i wouldn't have
thought it was that bad
either since i don't play,
but it turns out that
non-urbanites live &
die by McD's contests)
by buying full page ads
in all major dailies
the following day
apologizing to consumers.
If that didn't already suck,
McD's consequently fired
it's promo agency, which
again, showed McD's is
addressing it won't get
swindled again. however,
the story doesn't end
there. Simon Marketing,
the agency, was conse-
quently also fired by
Kraft, then days later
by Philip Morris,
effectively putting
it out of business.
(Kraft IPO'd, so, they're
two diff companies now.)
And to top it off, some
lawyer in Chicago is sueing
McD's for fraud. All these
"revelations that long-
standing McDonald's prize
contests may have been
rigged could damage the
already shaky consumer
trust in the sweepstakes
and promotions industry,
experts said this week."
And just think, all this,
because of one employee.

bottom lines: what kind
of retarded executives
are working @Simon Marketing
to have allowed something
like this to have utterly
devastated their business?
1. criminal employee
behavior is unavoidable
in a situation like this.
no amount of reviewing
and testing could have
prevented this from
happening. turns out the
guard responsible for
distributing game pieces
was the ringleader.
but what you can do
is diversify employee
responsibility. have
that employee work
on different accounts
during his career at your
company. not only will
it prevent boredom
and disdain for your
company by keeping
him/her interested
in his/her job, but also
prevent the possibility
of an employee becoming
so familiar with his/her
routine that (s)he also
becomes familiar w/every
opportunity to conduct
inappropriate activities.
2. diversify your revenue
and the share of revenue
from each profit center.
3. in the event of a
company crisis like this,
remember McD's response:
it took exemplarary action
by admitting wrongdoing,
extending & replenishing
current contest, termina-
ting ties to those
responsible, and of course
an aggressive PR effort
to let it's patrons know
what it was doing.

read more:
Wednesday aug 22nd issue of Wall Street Journal
http://www.Adage.com
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010824/us/mcdonald_s_monopoly.html
http://www.wh5.com/ncmi/c.cfm?I=9038

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********* al berrios website *********

WEBSITE: websites aren't
just a form of communicating
to your customers. They're
assets. According to Jupiter
Media Metrix, "69% of brick-
and-click retailers are
underestimating the benefits
derived from their Web sites."

bottom line: a chat room,
a couple of articles, and a
search feature do not a web
site make. There is lots of
engineering that you must
do w/respect to content
layout, functionality,
navigation, visuals, and
sounds before you have
a valuable asset on your
hands. And don't kid your-
self - YOU are not the best
judge of your work. Just
b/c you felt your audience
wanted to see pictures of
your newborn, doesn't mean
they will be spending their
money on your brand. Hire
a professional. They know
how to do it right.

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********* al berrios idea *********

PROBLEM: milk sales drama-
tically increased b/c
the Diary Association's
ad agency realized that
milk drinkers took milk for
granted. drinkers failed
to realize that they drank
it all the time, but w/
other foods. This prompted
the now famous "Got Milk?"
campaign, that saw ppl
stuffing their faces,
but w/o milk to wash it
down with. This changed
milk's positioning from
something mom gave you
to "help your body grow"
to one that makes your fave
foods go down even better.
So, it's raining, & i
didn't have an umbrella...

IDEA: i don't know of
a single company that
can be easily identifiable
as an umbrella brand.
sure, every fashion
designer brands umbrellas,
but ppl don't truly recog-
nize how truly important
an umbrella can be,
until they need it.
obviously, the umbrella's
simple construction
makes it affordable
for just about anyone
to make it and sell
it for $3 bucks on any
corner. just like CDs,
or belts, or shirts,
or purses, or just
about anything you
can buy on any street
corner in manhattan for
under $10 bucks, or
in MACY's for over $100.
true, ppl buy for quality,
but the right brand
on a product makes a
world of difference.
So, what if there were
a company out there,
that marketed the heck
out of their umbrellas?
If Callaway means great
golf clubs, Marble
means good notebooks,
then why not an a brand
exclusively dedicated
for umbrellas?

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********* al berrios media *********

MEDIA: women's wear daily,
the hoity-toity fashion
pub about, you guessed it,
women's fashion, charges
over $800 bucks per annual
offline subscription.
They figured they can do
the same online w/wwd.com.
Who'd the hell want to pay
for something like this?
well, fashion designers,
execs, and well, that's
about it. So, obviously
they'd want to pay another
$800 for even more daily
(yup, not weekly) fashion
reporting. Today, WWD
announced it's pulling
the plug on wwd.com
scheduled for sept 10
launch.

bottom line: I regularly
refer to subscription
based models as superior.
AOL gets it. Salon gets it.
Consumer Reports gets it.
so how does an $800/yr
subscription based model
fail? Fairchild Pubs,
the owner, blames poor
ad market. (I would too,
if i were an idiot that
can't make money from an
$800/yr subscriber base
and 12 people on staff.)
subscriptions are the
way to go, people. WWD
already charges too much
for their offline version
and it's successful.
So the lesson here is
don't screw around w/
your consumer's loyalties.
the real reason for
the failure of wwd.com
was that they were taking
for granted their consumer
& their need for fashion
info, NOT the ad market.

top
********* al berrios humor *********

HUMOR: Microsoft Corp.
is all over the news
this week for using
their P.R. agency,
edelman pr, for using
a phony grassroots
letter-writing campaign
directed to attorneys
general trying to sue
MSFT on antitrust
charges. edelman
actually wrote letters
impersonating dead
people, personalized
stationary & all.

bottom line: good pr
only goes so far. the
rest is up to you.

top
********* al berrios privacy *********

PRIVACY: it's about time
this newsletter addressed
this. it seems that MSFT
has just realized that
no one cares about person-
lized service to make
their experience better
through Microsoft, who has
been heavily promoting
their PASSPORT feature
that lets users sign in
once, allowing them to
access many retailers.
"Ultimately, however,
the privacy issue likely
will be the most daunting
one for Passport. Some
90 percent of online
consumers are not
interested in exchanging
personal data for per-
sonalized services, said
Gartner, and Microsoft
has yet to convince the
public that it is a
benevolent gatherer of
personal data."

bottom line: your customers'
privacy is no joke. it's
part of your relationship
w/them. it's part of that
whole CRM trend you've heard
so much about. it's part
of that whole branding thing
i'm always preaching about.
even the biggest corporations
understand by having
Chief Privacy Officers to
safeguard there consumers
data. If you don't have
a privacy statement somewhere
on your site, you're loosing
customers. here are some
reminders when working
on your privacy statement:
1. children are heavily
protected. check out COPA
guidelines to know how
to market to them.
2. always be direct w/
how you intend to collect &
use any information that
you require customers to
give you.
3. never ask for more
information than necessary.
4. and wherever you store
your customers data, make
sure it's protected like
you'd protect your own
family.

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********* al berrios music *********

MUSIC: top hiphop music
celebrities are teaming up
to form the first (PAC)
political action committee
ever by any music genre,
called Nu America. it will
deal w/issues ranging from
music marketing to funding
for inner city schools.

bottom line: ever wonder
what HIPHOP is really about?
Yeah, me too, until i
started doing research.
It's not just a $2
billion(sales)/yr genre,
it's a $1 TRILLION culture.
HIPHOP has substantial
influence over its con-
sumers. HIPHOP artists
are using their influence
in ways never before
attempted by any other
music genre. from movies,
to endorsements, to gov
activists, HIPHOPPERS
are involved in every
part of life. Now just
imagine being able to
harness this power, this
influence, to sell your
brand? Well, let me know
if you do - i've got the
prescription.

read more:
September 3rd issue of BusinessWeek, Upfront section

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********* al berrios iMarketing *********

Disclaimer: The recommendations, commentary and opinions published herein are based on public information sometimes referenced via hyperlinks. Any similarities or likeness to any ideas or commentary from any other sources not referenced is purely coincidental. al berrios & co. cannot control any results occurring from advice obtained from this publication nor any opinion(s) conveyed by any reader of this publication.

(c) 2001-2005. All Rights Reserved. al berrios & company, inc. Published by al berrios & co. This Report may not be reproduced or redistributed in any form without written permission from al berrios & co., subject to penalty.

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