Network Marketing as a Business

by joecool79

In the past year, I have been invited and attended two network marketing events. For those unfamiliar with network marketing, it is often referred to as a “pyramid scheme” or “multi-level marketing.” Most recently, I heard it described as “empire building.” Regardless of what you call it, here are the things I’ve identified from it (having not read the full Wiki entry):

1. It’s purported as a way to gain financial independence.

2. It’s usually put on by older people who have been in the business for a long time and have now achieved a high level within the network.

3. There are more and more people showing up to these events since the economy is in a downturn.

4. It’s often described as, “work when you want, where you want.”

I’m not going to go into the process of elaborating on any of these topics, or disputing them. What I would like to talk about is how it plays on a type of marketing which is now becoming a very hot topic, word of mouth (WOM) marketing.

Microsoft’s new brand character is…a middle-aged guy from the 90’s?

by forrestsloan

Yesterday, Microsoft announced a $300 million dollar Windows advertising campaign intended to boost the brand perception of its beleaguered Vista operating system.  This is surely counterprogramming to Apple’s highly successful Mac vs. PC ads which feature John Hodgman as the frumpy, stuffy, middle-aged personification of PC (i.e. Microsoft and Windows).

Their new brand ambassador in this campaign?  Jerry Seinfeld. 

What’s in a Name?

by forrestsloan

Recently, I was helping a friend try to figure out a name for a mobile software start—up. The field’s so crowded with ventures now that it’s not easy to pick a name that hasn’t already been taken. And it’s even harder to avoid names that are too techy, too cutesy, too clunky or just too, well, plain. The only thing we were certain of was not taking a regular word and starting it with the letter “i.”

After umpteen passes with random imagination we decided to take a different approach. Rather than just brainstorm names, we would first identify the qualities we thought would constitute a good name so we had something against which to judge our ideas. Here’s what we came up with:

FLEXIBLE — A word with multiple meanings and interpretations. Better yet — a word that can be used as a verb or a noun. Not only does this open up more possibilities for your marketing communications, it gives your design team a lot more options. At one point we had gone down the road of fly—fishing imagery (tangential, yes, but we still think it’s cool) and words like “fly,” “lure,” and “catch” all fit this bill.

EVOCATIVE — You want a name that conjures up interesting imagery. Imagery that will be powerful in telling your story and conveying your brand image. Words attached to common metaphors (like “window,” “door,” “sky”) are also more apt to translate internationally. But beware: you also want to conjure up the right imagery. One name that we came up with was quickly squashed by the graphic designer because the first thing it made her think of was the creature in Alien. Not so friendly. Google got this one right with the name of their new mobile platform, Android, even if it is a bit scary. Flickr got it right too. And Richard Branson really got it right with Virgin.

WE LIKE TO SAY IT — Maybe it’s hard to quantify this, but we all know it when we hear it. There are onomatopoeic words like “sizzle.” Words with hard sounds like “hatch” and “jot.” And just plain goofy words that are fun to say like “Google,” “Zoho” and “Twitter.”

AVAILABLE DOMAIN & DEFENSIBLE — a minor detail (heh)

We never did come up with a name. I think the lawyers are duking it out over a bunch of second string ideas. Turned out the one we liked most were too polarizing. But, we still think these are useful guidelines for those of you undertaking the Sisyphean task of naming your start—up. Good luck.

New Product Development Spotlight

by joecool79

This is not a regular segment, but there is a company who’s products are standing out to me. A company that’s using empathetic design or the groundswell to lead their product development cycle.

Belkin

They have products that really show they understand the customer’s perspective. Whether it’s a washable mouse (with great marketing story), or a zip-up mousepad, or a USB hub with a clip, all the products show thought as to how they’re used in the real-world, and how they’re solving problems that people have with these products, or the modifications they make themselves.

Great Job Belkin!

Differentiation in Airlines

by joecool79

I think a lot of airlines are in the old world thinking that their service is flying people from one place to another. They believe that what people are paying for now is an airplane taxi. And for some that is true. They will  go for the lowest price as a differentiator to show that they can get you from point to point the cheapest. The flight may not always be on time; and they might not have the most amenities, but they are cheap, and they’ll get you there, as long as you’re flexible.

Then there are those that realize that flight is now thought of as pure transportation.

Now Rocking My Phone

by atremble

Last month Pandora launched an iPhone application that has revolutionized a corner of my world. The service is already the 4th most popular application on the phone (first in music) and it drove a record 3.3 million songs streamed in one weekend to iPhone listeners alone. Yet it has no ads. Given that Pandora’s revenue model depends on clever advertising with high CPMs, how can Pandora afford the royalties and bandwidth? One explanation is to view the launch as a massive—and massively successful—marketing expense until the user base can be monetized.

It’s not yet clear how Pandora and Apple plan to do this.