Target Celebrates "Shameless Promotion Month" (Yes it's a real observance)

In the September 21, 2010 article Consumers Want More Cause Marketing from eMarketer.com, 81% of surveyed consumers stated they would buy a cause related product and 78% stated they would change their shopping behavior in response to cause related marketing.

With that in mind lets all take time to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and the power of dreams with the help of Target's “Dare. Dream. Do.” diversity program/corporate thingy brought to you by such luminaries as Enrique Iglesias!

<--Look into my eyes and feel the diversity!

While I can't entirely figure out what this is all about, one of the statements from the associated page on Target.com should bring Target's purpose to light. “By developing relationships with minority and women-owned vendors and suppliers, Target invests in the success of businesses across

the country.”

Notice the underlined part there and consider this statement from the eMarketer article by Alison Dasilva: “Cause branding is a prime opportunity for companies to extend beyond their traditional market and increase exposure to potential new consumers.”

So looking past the corporate-speak, this program is, at its core, just another marketing vehicle for Target to attract customers, in this case Hispanic ones. And people that like Enrique Iglesias.

Target may also have genuinely altruistic motives in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, but I tend to have a rather cynical view toward corporate programs like this as they are rather self-serving. After all, September is also National Chicken Month, National Head Lice Prevention Month, National Piano Month, and National Mushroom Month, but I don't see any matching programs on the website.

Is more than one SPAM post considered Spamming?

On page 98 of Internet Marketing 2nd ed. by M.L. Roberts we are reminded of the fact that unlike physical items, information is not destroyed when it is consumed. “In fact, on the internet useful information is often shared...thereby increasing its value.”

The recipe exchange on the SPAM website is an excellent example of how information can increase in value for the company through the sharing of recipes among different consumers, who in turn share them with their own acquaintances. (I hesitate to say friends as I'm not sure what relationship I'd have with someone who gave me a SPAM recipe on purpose.) The effect this can have should be fairly obvious. More people hearing about SPAM in theory leads to more SPAM sales, not just from people that visit the site but from those they share recipes with.

This is also a good example of the community aspect of interactive brand building as outlined on page 157. People who really love SPAM (they do exist) finally have an outlet for their creativity to an audience that actually listens to them and shares their experience and opinions. This can strengthen the SPAM brand image among these members, who in theory will preach to the unconverted through their recipes.  Again, this increases the value of the information, namely the recipes.

This forms a solution to another problem that I perceive...what does a person do with SPAM? Most people have a general idea of what SPAM is, (sort of) but once it comes schlorping out of the can to sit quivering upon our plates, I daresay most of us are at a loss as to what to do other than fry it beyond recognition in a vain attempt to convince ourselves it tastes like bacon.

And so I present for your consideration something that I thought was a joke but turns out is actually real and pretty big in Hawaii:

SPAM Musubi

McDonald's: I'm not lovin' it

Usually the only reason I'm yawning at McDonald's is because I got up early enough on the weekend to get a McMuffin before they stop serving them, but my first impression of their website is pretty snore inducing from a marketing perspective.

Based on information in the Sept. 7, 2010 article Can Marketers Catch Up with Millennials? from eMarketer.com a large percentage of “millenials” (young adults, ages 18 to 34) have generally favorable attitudes towards advertising, to the point of saying they “click more often on all types of online ads”. A large majority, 78%, also say that they actively engage in social media and blogging.

With that in mind, where is the ability to “share” the site via social media? (If one were to bother anyway.) It's way up in the right hand corner in tiny font, gray on black, and tiny icons in the bottom left that I actually didn't notice until I was writing this sentence. It could be argued that anyone that really wanted to link their Facebook to McDonald's would go a little out of their way, but as an impulsive action there is little to entice an everyday visitor to click and add one more piece to McDonald's online social presence.

Also a minority, only 43% of millenials, choose to opt out of mailing lists for targeted e-mail advertising and yet where is the McDonald's Fan Club or loyalty program or pop up prompt? Under “promotions”? Nope. “Contact us”? Nope. The ability to sign up for offers or promotions is in a tiny gray text at the bottom with the uninspired title “subscribe/unsusbscribe”. To what a person would subscribe isn't really known until they click.

As much as their television ads annoy me, (ba daba ba daaaa) they at least seem targeted to a more youthful demographic. By comparison the website seems bland, uninspired, even (gasp) corporate. As a final insult, while only 33.5% of millenials feel that advertising to kids is wrong, just try to find Ronald McDonald, arguably one of the most recognizable icons in the world, anywhere on the McDonalds site.

In the next election Mayor McCheese better run on a platform of advertising reform.

Four Characteristics of Spam (And I don't mean canned, meaty, salty, or mysterious)

Reluctant as I am to sing the praises of Spam, I do have to point out that the website is an excellent example of all four important “I” characteristics of good internet marketing as described in Internet Marketing 2^nd ed. by M.L. Roberts (P. 82).

The site is interactive. When you first navigate to the page you are immediately greeted by a box superimposed over the page inviting you join the Spam recipe exchange. Here Spam connoisseurs can share their favorite Spam based recipes, rate them, and vote for favorites.

It is information driven. Visitors to the site can register for their own recipe, shopping, and fan club account. Combined with the ability to shop for Spam products directly from the site Hormel has access to a wealth of information from popular flavor buying trends, customer demographics, and preferences.

It is immediate in nature. Customers can access direct contact information, shipping, nutritional info, and even order Spam products all from this one site, 24/7.

Finally it is involving. Potential and current customers can print out coupons directly from the site to purchase Spam products and the recipe exchange section can entice potential customers via the desire to try new recipes.

So there we have it, clearly Spam has all the ingredients for successful internet marketing. If only we could figure out what the actual ingredients of Spam are...

Lots of People Like Target, Just Not Enough To Be Friends

According to the September 10th, 2010 article How Social Media Is Changing Brand Marketing from eMarketer.com, 52% of brand representatives feel that social media provides an opportunity to reach new customers but only 35% agreed that it would help build loyal customers.

I think those numbers should be the other way around.

Take Target for instance. Obviously they have both a large brick and mortar presence (1,750 stores in 49 states according to their website) and a large online presence. They also have a Facebook page with many features and applications tied to shopping and store information. However, all of that is available, and more useful, on the actual Target site. On Facebook, one thing to notice is this number: 1,739,406, the number of people that “like” Target. (Apparently public entities can only have “likes” but not friends...seems lonely.)

The current population of the United States on census.gov is 310,223,562. In other words, if Facebook is to be believed, only .56% of the United States likes/shops at Target. (Or only .35% of the Facebook population.) Obviously that's an oversimplification and also not true with that many stores in that many states. As such it would be safe to assume, as I do, that most of the people who “like” Target on Facebook are already among the ranks of their existing customers, and a new customer looking to buy something would use Target.com, not Facebook as the starting point of their relationship.

Clearly if someone has gone through the effort of “liking” Target on Facebook they already have some form of relationship with the company. As such I believe that a greater use of Facebook would be in further interaction with customers to maintain their loyalty and “like-ship” rather than focusing on new customers.

The Things We Make, Make Us. Thus I Am Made of Postings About the Jeep Site.

OK, in the interest of transparency I'll be up front with you. The thing that impresses me the most on the Jeep website is when you hover the mouse over the tab for the different vehicle models at the bottom and a funny little graphic of the vehicle climbs/drives up over the menu. “But that's stupid and ridiculous! Why would that impress you the most Keith?” Shut up, that's why.



On a more academic note the Jeep website seems to encompass some of the ideals in the “value chain” and drivers of internet economy as discussed in the text Internet Marketing by M.L. Roberts.



For instance:



In the value chain the text cites Dell as a prime example creating a value chain in internet space (p. 36) with it's streamlined model of customer ordering and manufacturing to order. While Jeep hasn't gone that far, the website does offer customers the capability to select and customize a vehicle while receiving estimated costs in real time. They can then search new or used inventory for a matching vehicle or request a quote to order or lease it.



Jeep did not pioneer this concept, but it is an example of one of the main drivers of Internet economy; namely that consumers now have the power in the information rich internet environment (p. 24). In the past if I wanted to order a Jeep I would be reliant on my local Jeep dealer and the “expertise” of a professional, and likely high pressure, salesperson. Now potential customers can do all the research and preparation online without pressure or hassle. Without this convenience, I might have ended up getting annoyed by a salesperson and bought a Subaru instead.



Also there are funny little Jeep graphics, and quite a few more advanced features but I imagine that's covered in a later chapter.