Marketing Thoughts by Domus, Inc.

Wall Street Journal Bucks the Trend

2009-10-27T08:36:00.004-04:00

The Audit Bureau of Circulations just relased its numbers for the circulations of the top 25 newspapers in the U.S. Every paper except the Wall Street Journal had a decrease. The WSJ had a very minor increase, but that's still significant compared to double-digit decreases of many of the others. Moreover, the WSJ's increase combined with USA Today's decrease moved the WSJ into the number 1 spot as the largest circulating newspaper in the country (2,024,269).

This has been reported in a number of places, but the one question not asked elsewhere is "why?" Why is the WSJ bucking the trend? From a marketing perspective, for an industry that is severely ill, this seems to be the critical question. Is it the respective biases in the different newspapers given today's economic and political climate? Is it the editorial content? The price? Something else?

Whatever the reason, it behooves the other papers to take note and emulate some of the Wall Street Journal's product, pricing, and/or distribution models. Time is running out for many in the industry.

Domus is a full-service marketing consulting agency based in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Brand Positioning - Cadillac

2009-10-26T09:16:00.004-04:00

Every time I see Cadillac's commercial for their 2010 SRX crossover, I wince. They come so close with this one, but they still can't seem to clearly stake out their brand position.

2010 Cadillac SRX Ad

Re-envisioned, reorganized, reactivated, all designed to reignite the soul. The all new 2010 SRX. The Cadillac of crossovers.

First, the commercial starts with a picture of the SRX - a nice car, but it's a crossover. If Cadillac is trying to reclaim the luxury automobile market top brand position, it's hard to do so with a car segment that evokes imagery of sport, utility, and fun. These are areas that fit more with Chevy's brand position (or GMC's) than Cadillac's. (That's not to say that a luxury brand can't have a crossover - Lexus has one - but it's easier when you're at the top.)

Next, the music, imagery, and wording (re-envisioned, reorganized, reactivated, reignite) are all more evocative of upbeat fun and styling. This would seem to be a brand position that Buick should occupy.

Finally, the ad ends with the line, "The Cadillac of crossovers." So, at the end of the ad, GM finally tries to position the car at the top of the luxury market. But by this point, it has spread its message across three brand positions.

GM has a great opportunity to turn itself around. It finally has an excellent line-up of cars. It just needs to solidify its brands in their correct positions in consumers' minds.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. For more, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Attack Advertising Works

2009-10-23T10:51:00.005-04:00

Or rather, good, relentless attack ads work. Everyone has seen how effective attack ads are in political campaigns. In fact, they're so effective that they are the dominant form of advertising during election cycles.

But even outside of the political realm, good attack ads that consistently hammer the opposition often succeed, as long as the attacking brand has a solid position, a valid attack angle, and a long-term plan. (Long term is essential because in the real world, even lies, if told often enough, forcefully enough, eventually become accepted as truths by many people.)

Note that we're not categorizing comparison advertising as attack advertising. We're referring here to full frontal assaults on a brand's position, status, and even good name.

And also note that a successful attack advertising campaign works best if the ads do not present and easy opening for counter-attack and if the target company does not aggressively and effectively fight back. Following are two examples.

This first one from Audi was blatant in calling out BMW, but didn't really have any meat behind it. Moreover, not only did it leave an opening for BMW, they responded aggressively and brilliantly. Look at billboard that BMW put up next to the original Audi billboard within days of Audi's. One word destroyed Audi's attack.

On the other hand, Apple has been relentless in its campaign, attacking vulnerable Microsoft positions. Moreover, Microsoft has chosen not to respond forcefully and relentlessly itself, thereby eroding its own position and leading to increasingly successful Apple sales and profits. Below is yet another in a series of Mac vs. PC Apple ads.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. For more information about us, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Google Insights For Search

2009-10-20T09:23:00.004-04:00

Google Insights for Search is another great tool that can help marketers plan and refine their campaigns. It lets you compare search volume patterns by category and geography over time. You can explore seasonality, geographic, and product trends. As an example, by analyzing geographic trends over time of search patterns for your brand and your category, you might identify a high ROI metropolitan area to focus a concerted marketing effort.

I would be surprised if any brand manager who spent a half hour or so with this tool didn't find at least one useful insight - about yourself or your competition. Or, at a minimum, it should raise some interesting questions.

Domus is a full-service marketing consulting agency based in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Google Campaign Insights

2009-10-19T08:52:00.004-04:00

There have been a number of studies that show that online display advertising has a multiplicative effect on conversion rates of sponsored search listings - as high as 22% improvement. (See Microsoft Advertising Institute.) But it's still hard to tell exactly how much impact your specific display ads have on your specific search campaigns.

That should be changing soon, though. As Advertising Age is reporting, Google is beta-testing their Campaign Insights tool, which will give you an indication of how effective your campaign is. As they explain:

With Campaign Insights, Google takes data from the advertiser's server logs to determine who was shown an ad and when. Then compares that to web searches and site visits culled from data from the millions of Google toolbars on computer desktops. Those results are compared to a comparable group that didn't see the ad.

Then Google measures the difference between the number of brand searches and site visits between the two groups. To filter out the impact of other media or influences, such as a TV campaign, Google compares the data to the two groups' behavior before the campaign began. The incremental difference is attributable to the display-ad campaign.

This should be a win-win for both Google and marketers. Marketers will be able to refine display advertising campaigns for better effectiveness and Google will gain more of the display advertising business (because they will be able to objectively show the ROI of campaigns).

Domus is a full-service advertising, PR, and social media marketing agency based in Philadelphia. Please visit us at http://www.domusinc.com.

Google Hits Record Quarterly Profit - Is Advertising Back?

2009-10-16T11:45:00.004-04:00

Google just announced its quarterly financial information, and its profit hit its highest ever (Associated Press. Does this mean that the advertising industry is making a comeback? Maybe, but maybe not. Although Google's numbers were all good, they were at much lower rates of increase than before. Moreover, given that they increased market share, some of their gains came at the expense of their competitors - not at the addition of more advertising into the market. Moreover, some of whatever new advertising did come into the market came from other online and offline advertising dollars - companies are still shifting budgets to shorter term strategies such as Search Marketing vs. old media advertising.

But optimism is good. This might be another of several recent signs that the worst of the recession is behind us. There are still some rough roads ahead for marketers, but hopefully we'll continue to see positive signs.

Domus is a full service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Great Taglines and Jingles

2009-10-14T10:32:00.004-04:00

How many people over 40 can still remember the great brand taglines, jingles, and slogans from their youth? On the other hand, how many current ones does anyone remember? The era of great jingles and mottos seems to have passed us; however, something has been lost in the process. The fact that so many of us remember so many of them shows how powerful they can be. They keep the brand front and center in our minds - when we're thinking of the brand category and often when we're not. Their impact lasts years and decades. It's hard to calculate the ROI on that.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Fix Web Site Errors

2009-10-13T09:46:00.003-04:00

It's amazing to me that in 2009 there are still so many large company web sites that have HTML or JavaScript errors on them. Most people don't notice them, but if your browser's configuration is set to show errors you will be bombarded with pop-ups complaining about many sites. Moreover, from my experience, it seems like it's often the display ads placed on sites that cause the errors.

If an error-showing browser visits a web site with errors, that site can be more than confusing - it can be unusable because of all of the pop-ups. As such, people with those browser settings tend to avoid these sites, which costs marketers impressions and clicks. It doesn't take much to verify that a site is clean, and the advantage of doing such can be the difference between achieving or not achieving a desired ROI.

Domus is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications agency with strong interactive capabilities. Part of our standard checklist when publishing new content is verifying the pages for errors, as well as viewing the pages in different browsers and at different resolutions. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Store Brand Growth - Cause or Effect?

2009-10-12T12:38:00.005-04:00

Marketing research data shows that store brands have been making inroads against branded consumer packaged goods items. (E.g., see Progressive Grocer.) But statistics don't always tell the whole story. One thing reports like this don't show, though, is why consumers are switching. It would be interesting to find out how many consumers are deliberately choosing store brands vs. no longer having a choice.

From my own personal experiences, I've noticed that several of my preferred name brand items are harder or impossible to find at many supermarkets - their shelf space has been taken over by store brands. Therefore, although I might have preferred a name brand in some cases, I had little or no choice (barring shopping elsewhere).

This is a question name brand manufacturers might want to consider. Their future marketing strategies might need to be adjusted if they are losing sales because of consumer choices or because of retailer decisions.

Domus is a full-service advertising, public relations, and social media marketing agency based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Take Note of Google Sidewiki

2009-10-09T09:58:00.003-04:00

Google just recently introduced their new Google Toolbar-based Sidewiki feature. This allows anyone with the Google Toolbar installed (which is a large percentage of internet users) to add his own side comments to ANY web site on the internet. And those comments are then visible to any other Sidewiki users who later visit that site.

Prior to Google Sidewiki, marketers at least had a little control over their own web site, even if they had effectively lost control over references to them on social networking sites, blogs, etc. Now, however, even your home page is an accessible target for web surfers, whether or not their comments are accurate or even relevant. And you have little or not control over what is written, other than adding your own comments to the mix.

Moreover, as of right now, those comments are not visible outside of Sidewiki - they don't show up in any search engine searches - so unless you have Sidewiki yourself, you'll never know what people are writing about you on your own web site. Therefore, like it or not, as of today, marketers should have at least one machine on which they have installed Sidewiki, and should regularly visit their own site to see if any side notes are added by others.

Domus is a Philadelphia advertising, public relations, and internet marketing agency. We're a dynamic agency, different than most you've probably experienced. In fact, maybe we should be called the "un-agency." Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Bing's Biggest Hurdle - Google Search Toolbar

2009-10-08T08:09:00.005-04:00

After Microsoft announced Bing a few months ago, it began increasing market share. However, its string of increases halted in September. Microsoft now has its work cut out for it to get more share.

One of Microsoft's biggest challenges will be what turns out to be one of Google's smartest moves - the Google search toolbar. More and more people today don't bother going to Google's home page to begin their searches. Rather, they just type their search request into the Google search toolbar from whatever page they are on. Virtually nobody who searches this way is interested in going back to the old procedure of jumping to an explicit search page - it's wasted navigation. So, the share of the market who uses the toolbar is not even in play for Microsoft to win over. Unless Microsoft comes up with a strategy to address these people, they will be fighting an increasingly difficult war.

Domus, Inc. is a full service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more information.

Split-Testing and Landing Pages

2009-10-07T09:50:00.004-04:00

Everyone knows the value of split-testing (A-B testing), and just about anyone who uses Google AdWords split-tests their paid search ads. But if split-testing is so useful, why do so few people split-test landing pages? Obviously, there is more work (and hence money) involved in designing two landing pages than there is in writing two paid search ads. However, the value of achieving a higher click-through rate from a landing page is arguably more important than at any other previous stage in the sales cycle. People who have reached a landing page have self-qualified their interest.

I just finished doing a small test in Google. I randomly selected about a dozen different search phrases off the top of my head - some that I knew would bring up large corporations and some that I thought would return smaller companies. For each search, I then clicked on each of the top 5 paid search ads, 10 times each. If a company was doing true split testing, the landing page would randomly redirect me sometimes to one page and sometimes to another. Split-tested landing pages usually have code like the following in them:

<?php if (rand(0, 1) == 0)
  {
  header("Location: http://www.MySite.com/SplitTest_1");
  }
else
  {
  header("Location: http://www.MySite.com/SplitTest_2");
  }
?>

However, in 100% of my admittedly small sampling, I found no evidence of split-testing. Interestingly, two of the search terms I tested were "split testing landing pages" and "a-b testing landing pages". Even the companies who placed paid search ads for those terms didn't bother split-testing their landing pages.

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the state-of-the-art in landing page design has reached its pinnacle of effectiveness such that marketers no longer need to split test their designs. Kudos to them! I don't know how I missed that conference! Now where can I find that whitepaper to tell me how to design landing pages with perfect effectiveness each time so I don't have to split-test either?

Domus is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications agency that effectively combines classic marketing principles with modern execution techniques. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more information.

Starbucks and Social Media

2009-10-06T14:13:00.004-04:00

As everyone knows, social media is an absolute must for any marketer today. It's more important than measured media advertising, traditional customer service, and just about every classic marketing technique.

Everyone also knows that Starbucks is a case study example of how to do social media well. It has almost 200,000 Twitter followers, nearly 1.5 million Facebook fans, and a large, active blog. It regularly tweets, posts, and comments.

Except year-over-years same-store sales at Starbucks continue to decline. They've declined each quarter this year, even as their social media program has shined. On the other hand, social media wannabes like McDonald's have continued to see sales increases based principally on good classic advertising and other marketing techniques.

The point here is not that social media marketing does not work; rather, the point is that it is just a tool in a company's marketing bag, not an end in and of itself. Starbucks sells the experience of hand-made premium coffee at its many coffee houses. Just because they get a lot of people communicating with them online does not necessarily sell more coffee. (And, in fact, it hasn't.)

Domus is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications agency. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more information.

Microsoft Silverlight Has Exciting Future

2009-10-05T08:40:00.006-04:00

Microsoft's Silverlight platform has been gaining ground as a rich internet platform. The installed base of Silverlight has been consistently growing, reaching over 30% of computers this summer. Moreover, Microsoft recently released version 3.0, which adds many new features for developers and media providers. For example, Silverlight 3 (and Microsoft's Media Services 3.0) supports streaming video in high definition (1080p). And in 2010, Microsoft will enhance digital rights management (DRM) capabilities, making it easy for content providers to distribute their media digitally. Moreover, Microsoft is pushing Silverlight along many other fronts. It is now supported on the Xbox and on a number of Nokia phones. It will also be supported on all Windows 7.0 mobile phones (2010).

Silverlight is fast becoming a great cross-platform development platform. And Microsoft is making it easier for legions of individuals and small businesses to develop Silverlight applications by giving away development tools under its WebSpark program.

The next 18 months should prove very interesting in the number and type of applications being developed and delivered using Silverlight. The possibilities available to marketers should be just as interesting.

Domus, Inc. is a marketing communications company based in Philadelphia, with a development network that includes expertise in a number of areas, including Silverlight. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Display Advertising Metrics

2009-10-02T07:16:00.005-04:00

Social Media consultants regularly point out that the metrics used for traditional or online advertising campaigns don't apply to social media because they don't take into account the more "social" component of "social media". Metrics like "conversations started", "comments generated", etc. are often more appropriate even if they don't directly correlate (at least in the short run) to sales. However, the same holds true for "measured media" (whether traditional or online). Just because certain metrics are available does not mean that they are effective metrics.

The purpose of display advertising is not always to induce people to action (e.g., to make a purchase). Rather, it is often just to implant or reinforce a brand position in people's minds so that WHEN they are inclined to make a purchase, your brand is foremost (positively) in their mind. Therefore, there is not an immediate, direct relationship between metrics such as impressions and short-term results such as new leads or sales. The effect might happen at various future points in time. Moreover, they might seem to be correlated to other events or programs, but actually still be affected by the longer term display advertising campaign.

Consider Unilever. Unlike some of its other large consumer packaged goods rivals, Unilever did not cut back on its traditional advertising budget over the last couple of years; in fact, they increased their spending. As a result, they've seen sales and market share increases.

Also consider a recent ComScore study. In the online world, it found that only 16% of web users click on online ads (and that number has been dropping every year). Moreover, half of those users (8% of the total web users) account for 85% of all clicks. So, how valuable is display advertising when the metrics clearly show that most people ignore them? Well, digging deeper into the study, it turns out that when companies run both display advertising and paid search campaigns, although the number of people who click on the display ads is small, the number of people who later on search for the brand increases. In fact, not only is paid search more effective, but consumers who were exposed to both paid search and online ads were twice as likely to buy from a retailer's online site. The result of the two tactics together was greater than the sum of each tactic individually.

So how does one effectively measure online and traditional "measured media"? Ultimately, tests have to be run over long periods of time, because the effects of advertising are long term. But in the meantime, marketers should understand that there is an inherent long-term value to display advertising if it properly communicates an effective brand message, regardless of whether or not it can be measured in the short run.

Domus, Inc. has its roots in strong, classic marketing principles. Combining that with a pulse on the changing technological and social environment, we consistently deliver effective results for our clients. For more information on a dynamic marketing communications agency, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Every Company Can Use Some Counseling

2009-10-01T09:17:00.003-04:00

Advisory Councils consist of customers from varying levels of engagement and experts in specific fields. They are important to the success of any company because of the opinions, advice and insight they provide on current and future issues. They offer outside perspectives on product positioning, strategies and other business decisions to help guide the company towards success. Capitalizing on their first-hand experiences with a product or brand can only benefit the organization and add legitimacy to your claims.

Advisory Councils are also powerful sales tools and they use the internet as their main messaging vehicle. They gather other consumer opinions from blogs and social media sites to compile as feedback, in addition to disseminating brand/product messaging to drive awareness and ultimately increase sales.

For organizations such as State Lotteries, an Advisory Council would serve to be invaluable. The Council would be built from retailer owners and active lottery players who would provide insight and feedback right from the horse’s mouth. Utilizing this insider information will help Lotteries better understand the retailer lifecycle and how to best fulfill partner needs. They can also offer suggestions for upcoming promotions and new game concepts, serving as the lotteries personal focus groups to improve customer satisfaction.

Domus, Inc. is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications consulting company. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Consumer Confidence Drops in September

2009-09-30T01:51:00.005-04:00

The Conference Board reported today that the Consumer Confidence Index fell to 53.1 percent in September, down from 54.5 in August. For marketers hoping to see a turnaround starting this holiday season, this is not good news. Consumer purses might not be as open as hoped. As such, marketing strategies should be adjusted accordingly. That doesn't necessarily mean cutting back, but rather positioning one's brand for the longer term.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia.

Branding Risk by Starbucks

2009-09-29T09:00:00.004-04:00

Starbucks is launching a major marketing campaign for its new instant coffee, Via. A major part of the roll out is a huge taste test throughout their 7,500 cafes in the US and Canada.

One possible problem with this introduction, though, is how it impacts the Starbucks brand position. Starbucks became successful by selling an experience and an image. Otherwise, why pay so much money for a product that can be gotten elsewhere for much less? Now, though, Starbucks is starting a huge campaign to convince people that they can't taste the difference between a fresh-brewed coffee in one of their cafes and some powder added to hot water. The more successful the campaign, the more Starbucks will convince people that there is no need to return to their cafes.

Domus, Inc. is a marketing consulting firm based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

GM - Consistent Brand Positioning?

2009-09-25T09:12:00.005-04:00

GM recently launched its new advertising campaign for Buick with the slogan, "The New Class of World Class". Moreover, Buick ads now prominently feature comparisons against Lexus. (And, in fact, people who are test-driving the 2010 Buick LaCrosse do say that it bests the Lexus ES.)

But how do these ads affect GM's overall brand mix? Cadillac was always the brand the was positioned at the high end. (Cadillac's advertising tagline use to be "The standard of the world.") Over the years, though, Cadillac's luster faded and Toyota seized the high end market position with the Lexus. So, by constantly comparing Buick to Lexus, is GM blurring the brand positions between Buck and Cadillac? If GM is successful in its Buick ads, how does Cadillac position itself?

Cadillac recently did come up with a great ad - for their SRX crossover. The tag line for this ad was "SRX - the Cadillac of crossovers." So Cadillac is finally standing tall and proclaiming its former place at as the world standard. But will they limit this tag line to the SRX or will they make a full frontal assault to regain their status across all models? And will they be fighting a war on two fronts - against Lexus and against their sister brand, Buick?

Domus, Inc. is a full service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Is Google Today's QWERTY Keyboard?

2009-09-24T13:16:00.004-04:00

Over the years, various studies have shown that the standard QWERTY keyboard layout that we all use is not the most efficient for typing. (In fact, it was originally designed in part to slow down typists.) However, various attempts over the years to introduce more efficient layouts all failed. The QWERTY layout was too ingrained into our typing habits to be supplanted.

Similarly, over these last few years we've seen a number of new search engines, all touted as Google-killers. There were Wolfram-Alpha, Hakia, Cuil, and others. All promised innovations in visual displays, in the structure of the input queries, and the organization of the output. But none have really made an impact. In fact, the only engines other than Google that still have some significant market share are those that use the same basic keyword requests returning relatively simple results pages - Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo!, Ask, etc. Obviously, one reason is that these other companies have enough marketing capital and existing user bases to be successful.

However, another reason might be that people are comfortable with how search engines work today and are not interested in any change other than the relevancy of the results. This is just a thought, but it's also one to be considered by any marketer introducing a better mouse trap of any kind.

Domus, Inc. is a Philadelphia-based marketing consulting agency. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Getting on the Mobile Web Marketing Bandwagon

2009-09-22T09:48:00.004-04:00

Mobile internet usage today is exploding. The year-over-year numbers from January, 2008 to January 2009 showed over a doubling of usage. Since then, the introduction of new generations of "smartphones" such as the iPhone have stressed the mobile networks almost more than AT&T's and Verizon's combined $35 billion per year in mobile infrastructure investments can handle. And the trend looks to only point up, with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter being increasingly accessed by mobile devices.

So, as a marketer, what are you doing? At a minimum, this is the time to revisit all of your web properies and ensure that they are mobile-friendly. Other avenues of mobile marketing, including mobile ads, text messages, etc. will all be drastically less effective if you don't have a mobile-friendly web site. Would you ever invest in wired web banner ads without a web site or at least a landing page for users to click through to? The same is true for the mobile web.

So, if you wish to position yourself to take advantage of the mobile web as it explodes throughout 2010 and beyond, your first step should start now - make your web site mobile-friendly.

Domus, Inc. is a full service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. One of our priorities for the remainder of this year is to position ourselves and our clients to take advantage of existing and growing mobile marketing opportunities. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

The Convergence of Advertising, Sales, and Customer Service

2009-09-21T09:02:00.005-04:00

Although advertising, sales, and customer service have always been strongly related, today more than ever the lines between them is blurred. Advertising is generally the process of increasing and reinforcing brand awareness in anticipation of a future desire to purchase. Sales is the process of converting interest to action later in the sales cycle. And customer service is generally the process of keeping existing customers happy with their purchasing decision post-sales.

Today, however, the display ad that increases brand awareness can have a hyperlink click-through to a landing page that starts the cycle for an online sale. Or the click-through can directly or indirectly (e.g., through a search) go to an online community forum where existing customers discuss their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the brand (which in turn becomes an input into the sales decision process).

So, given that the three have become so interrelated, why do so many companies still keep different organizational reporting lines for the three functions? Especially today when the economy is fragile and profits are razor-thin, companies should consider how they can maximize the effectiveness of all three functions by more fully integrating them.

Domus, Inc. is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications consulting company. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Is Bad Publicity Really Good Publicity?

2009-09-18T09:30:00.003-04:00

There’s a saying that even bad publicity is good publicity, but unless you’re Paris Hilton that is far from the case. Some companies may not see the value in public relations, but if they become victim to a devastating media disaster then the value of public relations becomes priceless. However, PR isn’t just meant to quality control major disasters, it’s one of the main branches of an integrated marketing campaign. PR will raise brand awareness through legitimate industry sources vs. paid advertisements and help shape how customers view a product, company or even…you.

For instance, the State Lotteries are no stranger to negative publicity. The amount of press covering stories of lottery winners whose lives have been negatively affected by the money trumps the number of positive winner awareness stories. With a solid PR program, that could be reversed. By broadcasting on tier one outlets and creating feature stories, positive life changing stories would be heard, attracting consumer attention which will help raise sales.

Bad publicity might get you on the map, but a negative impression is hard to shake. By implementing a fully integrated marketing program with a strong public relations presence and internet presence tracking, any product, brand or company can raise awareness levels and inevitably raise sales.

Domus is an integrated marketing communications firm based in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Bing Continues Growth in August

2009-09-17T13:35:00.005-04:00

According to Nielsen, Microsoft's Bing dramatically increased its share of the search market in August, increasing over 22% compared to July. Moreover, it appears that Microsoft's gain was principally at Yahoo's expense.

This brings several thoughts to mind.

It appears that at least one reason for Microsoft's success was their broadbased, aggressive advertising campaign, involving both new and old media. All marketers should take notice - aggressive advertising can still be a potent tool.
Yahoo should seriously consider a plan "B" in case their search deal with Microsoft does not go through. Even if Federal regulators do eventually approve the deal, if that process takes too long and Yahoo keeps losing share to Bing, then Microsoft might not be as interesting in completing it - at least not at the original price.
Although Google has not yet been affected by Bing's success, they should not get too complacent. Microsoftstill has a number of salvos in their attack. They just released their "Visual Search" feature for Bing and their are rumors of an upcoming Bing 2.0.

Domus, Inc. is a full service marketing communications firm based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Social Media and Display Advertising

2009-09-15T11:10:00.005-04:00

Social media marketing is supposed to focus on online conversations with consumers, not disruptive advertising displays. But display advertising is still where the money is being spent and earned. Social networking sites, led by MySpace and Facebook, now account for over 20% of US online display advertising. And with sites like Twitter now opening up to display ads, the numbers will continue to grow.

Display advertising will always be an important component of marketing - whether offline or online. Display advertising is where companies put and keep their brands in the forefront - and the back - of people's minds. If companies are only active at the points when people are ready to buy (search engine marketing) or converse (social media participation), then those companies will have lost consumers who could have been customers but never knew to search or discuss their brands.

In fact, recent comScore research showed quantitatively how the combination of display advertising and search advertising was more potent than the sum of either individually. The same, I'm sure, will be shown for social media marketing - in combination with both search and display.

Domus, Inc. is a Philadelphia-based full-service advertising, PR, and social media marketing communications firm. We focus on applying classic marketing principles in unique and innovative ways to modern marketing needs and channels. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Missing Facebook Metrics

2009-09-14T10:44:00.004-04:00

As more and more companies are creating Facebook brand fan pages, Facebook's shortcomings in the area of metrics are becoming more significant. Although Facebook Insights offers information as to how many fans are receiving and possibly engaging in feeds from pages, Facebook offers virtually no metrics to companies trying to acquire more fans.

In the non-Facebook world, companies can measure how many people see an ad, how many click through to a web site, how many come to a web site from sources other than the ad, what people do on the site, and how many return. Companies can split-test ads, landing pages, and more to determine the best mix of content, presentation, and exposure to not only attract people to a site but to retain them.

On Facebook, however, there are no metrics that provide information on the number of or demographics of people visiting fan pages. Only once people become fans do the metrics kick in. (In fact, it's explicitly against the Facebook rule of service to try to track page visitors.)

So, what should Facebook marketers do? Basically, the same thing we did with old media - use inference. Keep statistics of activities that we hope are driving people to our fan page and keep statistics of how many people become fans. Then analyze presumed cause-and-effect relationships without knowing the intermediate numbers (of page visitors). It's an imperfect world, but given that Facebook is becoming an important media on which companies should have a presence, we have to work within the boundaries set for us.

Domus is a dynamic marketing communications firm based in Philadelphia. We provide integrated marketing consulting and execution services to domestic and international clients. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Social Media - Reach vs. Influence

2009-09-11T09:50:00.003-04:00

"Social Media" is a broad term that encompasses many consumer-generated content avenues, including blogs, forums, micro-blogs, social networks, product review sites, media sharing sites, virtual worlds, and more. Each of these, by its very nature, involves very different usage patterns from the others. This, in turn, has strong implications for marketers who wish to be socially active.

Two dimensions of usage patterns are of particular interest - reach and influence. Some media, such as the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace, have broad (and rapidly growing) audiences, and hence reach. However, because large percentages of the time spent on those sites are for personal connections and communications with friends/acquaintances, little time or focus is typically devoted to other communications. This, in turn, means that these sites have lower overall influence on consumers' buying habits and decisions.

On the other hand, media such as blogs and special interest forums, are generally topically focused; therefore, the people who visit and participate in these media are more inclined to be aware of, pay attention to, and consider opinions and other communications on the central or related topics of that media. As an example, a site like Chowhound, including all of its message boards and forums, is focused on culinary experiences. Therefore, participation in communities like this by a kitchen appliance manufacturer might have more impact than the same participation in a general social networking site. However, blogs and special interest forums have much smaller reaches than the large social networking sites. So, the number of impacted people on Facebook might still be as or more significant, because a low percentage times a huge population base can be large.

As another example, product review sites generally have an even lower reach than the other social media sites (especially when you narrow down the site visits to the general category of interest). However, the influence is probably higher than any other media because the people visiting these sites are specifically interested in your brand category and are also further along the sales cycle.

Domus is a full service marketing communications firm. We integrate classic marketing principles with a strong understanding of today's social media environment to develop and execute effective, state-of-the-art marketing communications. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Social Media and Internet Presence Management

2009-09-10T07:28:00.004-04:00

These two terms ("Social Media" and "Internet Presence Management") might at first glance seem contrary to each other. However, if embraced in the appropriate spirit, social media is really just an important component of effective internet presence management.

Social media marketing starts with the realization and acceptance that people will be talking about you, your competition, and just about everything else online. It then continues with the marketer embracing the conversations, joining them, encouraging them, and occasionally leading them. Internet Presence Management, on the other hand, is the process of monitoring and guiding the online thoughts about your company or brand. So how can one accept and participate in independent conversations while at the same time managing and guiding those online thoughts?

Internet Presence Management is also about recognizing that independent conversations exist, but it's not about resigning oneself to the complete content, distribution, or frequency of those conversations. Rather, it is the understanding that by honest, dilligent engagement strategies, marketers can expand and highlight the positive impressions of a brand or company.

Domus is an integrated marketing communications firm based in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

State Lotteries and Mobile Marketing

2009-09-08T10:08:00.004-04:00

Although mobile marketing is growing at significant rates in the U.S., there has not yet been a high adoption rate by state lotteries. With lottery revenues around the country struggling along with the rest of the economy, this might be an ideal avenue to add to the marketing mix.

There are many possibilities for lottery mobile marketing, from advertising current games, to providing jackpot sizes and winner notifications, to locating nearby retailers, and more. Simple programs like these would significantly keep lotteries in the forefront of likely buyers' minds, which in turn should have a strong positive impact on sales volumes.

Domus, Inc. is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications firm with many years of experience providing lottery marketing services. For more information, please visit our web site.

Google Domestic Trends Indexes

2009-09-04T09:57:00.004-04:00

Google just released "Domestic Trends " on its finance site (http://www.google.com/finance/domestic_trends). It tracks search traffic on Google across a number of sectors of the economy (e.g., automotive, construction, real estate, etc.). Moreover, it allows you to easily add to its graphs other financial indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and Nasdaq, as well as the prices of any stock.

Given the increasingly large role of online activity in the US economy, the importance of having information like this in predicting economic activity in the near future can't be understated. In fact, Google recently delivered a white paper (Google Predicting the Present) where they show that economic models that take into account their data outperform models that do not.

As marketers, information like this can be critical in helping us improve our brand performance. If we can better understand week-by-week the overall volume of searches in our general economic sector, we can tweak our SEM and other online campaigns accordingly. E.g., we can lower our target CPC but increase our overall spend when activity is spiking, or we can raise our target CPC but lower our total spend at other times. Or we can change our message, depending on the insights we derive from the search activity level. Or maybe we do nothing different, but now we have new information highly correlated to industry sales, using which we can make better decisions.

Domus is a full service advertising, PR, and interactive agency based in Philadelphia. As stewards of our clients' brands, we are constantly researching the market and available technological tools to better serve them. Please visit our web site for more information about us.

Keeping Employees Motivated with Incentives

2009-09-03T09:25:00.003-04:00

In a previous blog, we discussed the importance of employee appreciation and making sure office morale is high so your loyal soldiers don’t jump ship. During a recession, that task is much more difficult with salary cuts, layoffs and other ramifications seen throughout businesses across the country. Hefty raises and generous bonuses are unheard of now; however there are ways to keep employees motivated, driven and committed to company success without breaking the bank.

It’s important to give your employees something they will appreciate, such as Lottery tickets, which make great incentives and are inexpensive gifts. For example, instant tickets have great odds so the chance of employees winning is high, driving office excitement. Also, the small token of appreciation is recognized, increasing employee value which in turn drives productivity. In addition, each state lottery has its own local beneficiary, for instance the Pennsylvania Lottery proceeds benefit older Pennsylvanians. So by purchasing tickets, you are contributing to local funding to help support your state.

Incentives are also used to motivate employees to drum up new business. By instituting a friendly office competition aimed at identifying potential new accounts, you motivate employees; bragging rights are priceless.

Domus, Inc. is a full service advertising, public relations (PR), internet marketing, and social media agency headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Please visit our web site for more.

Exciting Times for Video Game Marketing

2009-09-01T02:45:00.006-04:00

Although 2009 has not been a stellar year for video games, the industry is poised to start growing again. Big name titles are due to be released through the rest of this year, and exciting new technologies are soon to be released. One such technology is Microsoft's Project Natal for the XBox 360, a sensor that combines a camera, depth sensor, microphone, and a custom processor. It tracks full body movement, understands commands, and recognizes voices.

Natal won't come out until 2010, but if it does come out with a good array of games, it has the potential to greatly expand the size and demographics of the XBox user base. And with Microsoft's 20+ million XBox Live user base, there are golden opportunities for marketers looking to reach this audience with video, animation, branded experiences, and more. Today the user profile is primarily male, 15-34, but with Natal, this could well expand into the Wii's territory.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia, PA. Please visit our web site for more information.

Social Media Bandwagon

2009-08-31T00:06:00.004-04:00

Everyone today is jumping on the social media bandwagon, mostly because everyone is jumping on the social media bandwagon. But when it comes time to determine the success or failure of a program, most marketers cannot do so. In some cases, there are no easily identified metrics, and in other cases, the easily identified ones might be misleading.

One typical metric is the number of fans/followers/members/etc. This is simple to define and easy to track, but is it valuable? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. It depends on the make-up of the fan base and the goal of the social media program. Is the goal to engage consumers in product enhancement exercises? Is the goal to offer online CRM services? Is it to keep customers abreast of news and/or promotions? Or is it something else?

The answers to those questions should probably guide the nature of the social media efforts, which in turn will help define the success metrics. For example, a coffee chain might do well engaging with millions of online fans. But does a toilet paper company need a fan page? Might other online/social media avenues be more productive?

Social media is a growing component of marketing communications plans. But as with any other tool, it's important to use it in the most effective manner, whether or not everyone else is or is not doing the same.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site for more.

Copyright Your Web Site

2009-08-27T09:59:00.006-04:00

Last year Sarah Bird posted an article on seomoz.org providing detailed steps on copyrighting the content of your web site. It's a great "how-to" guide, listing simple steps that anyone can follow and costing under $50 total ($45 for the Library of Congress' Copyright Office and a few extra dollars for a blank CD, some paper, some use of your computer and printer, an envelope, and a stamp). You can copyright your entire site, specific pages, or components of pages (e.g., videos, images, etc.), and you can easily submit updates for dynamic and changing content.

So, if the process is simple and inexpensive, why not do it now? The Digital Millenium Copyright Act gives you legal recourse in case anyone steals your content. Moreover, without a copyright, you can't even force someone from ceasing to use your work. And it can be more than just a few lines or pictures appearing elsewhere. The more of your content that appears elsewhere, the more your SEO rank might be co-opted by these other sites, the more confused about you and your brand your potential market becomes, and the more traffic that might never even come to your site. In fact, it's possible (and has happened) for unscrupulous people to steal content from your site for deceptive or malicious purposes. Without a copyright, there is little you can do about it.

As an addendum, once you have a copyright, rather than passively waiting to find out if any of your content has been stolen, it's a small investment to do periodic searches to look for plagiarism and unauthorized duplication. Sites such as http://www.copyscape.com are useful tools in this endeavor.

Domus, Inc. is a full service advertising, PR, internet marketing, and social media agency headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Please visit our web site for more.

Turnaround in Home Appliances?

2009-08-26T15:51:00.004-04:00

The Commerce Department reported that sales of durable goods (including large home appliances) rose 4.9% in July, which followed a 1.1 increase in June. (June was originally reported to show a 2.2% decrease.) Moreover, new home sales also rose in July, the fourth straight month of increases. It's obviously not all good news - we all can see the recession around us - but these are small rays of light, and possibly the opportunity for large home appliance manufacturers to rebound by stepping up their marketing efforts.

Add to this the government's home appliance rebate program (see Home Appliance "Cash for Clunkers") and consumers might have just enough incentive to start buying. If so, the brand that has positioned itself most effectively will reap the most rewards.

Advertising and Television

2009-08-25T10:10:00.003-04:00

With the increasing adoption of DVRs, video-on-demand, and video web sites, television broadcasters and advertisers are growing correspondingly worried. More and more people are skipping more and more ads. However, it is premature to sound the death knoll.

Although people are not sitting through ads the way they used to, there are still many television ads that are effectively communicating their messages. What shows do you watch on TV? What ads do you remember? Ask your friends the same questions. I doubt you'll find anyone who doesn't quickly remember a few commercials.

Marketers can no longer assume that they have a captive audience, but we do have an audience - a significant one - and we can reach it with effective ads as part of an overall communications strategy. Moreover, now is an opportune time to revisit television because of better segmentation and lower prices.

Domus is a full service marketing communications firm based in Philadelphia. We develop effective communications programs by combining classic marketing principles with modern execution. Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com for more.

Online Giants And Traditional Advertising

2009-08-24T03:05:00.005-04:00

It's interesting that with all of the attention on the decline of traditional media, two of the biggest online companies turn to offline media to promote their brand. Google is using billboards to lure more people to use Google for search, and Microsoft is using television to lure more people to use Bing.

As long as people spend significant portions of their time watching TV, listening to radio, reading magazines, or driving, the corresponding media remain valuable components of marketing strategies. The big online companies know this.

Domus is a Philadelphia-based marketing communications firm. Please visit our web site, http://www.domusinc.com for more information.

Home Appliance "Cash for Clunkers"

2009-08-21T07:20:00.005-04:00

As the automobile "Cash for Clunkers" program winds down this coming week, marketers can start eying the next big government "stimulus" program. Congress has set aside $300 million for states to run their own rebate program to encourage consumers to buy new energy-efficient home appliances, with money flowing to consumers as early as November.

Where does this leave marketers? If the consumer reaction to the automobile program was any indication, there might well be a surge in household appliance purchases in the fourth quarter of this year. Marketers should do themselves a favor and prepare their promotional campaigns now. The first ones out of the gates will most likely have a sales edge on the competition. Promotional offers, media buys, PPC campaigns, etc. should all be in development now so that companies can hit the ground when the time is right.

Domus is a Philadelphia-based full service marketing communications agency with expertise and extensive experience in the home furnishings and home appliance industries. Although the industry has been signiicantly hurt during this economic downturn, we expect a strong blip in activity, and we believe that those companies who effectively prepare will come out of this recession in a stronger market position than before. Please visit our web site for more.

Conversion Rates and Ad Position

2009-08-20T10:00:00.004-04:00

Google just released some research by its chief economist, where they conclude that conversion rates don't vary much by ad position. The reason people tend to correlate higher conversion rates with ad position is that Google uses an internal algorithm to rank the quality of ads and automatically pushes higher in the rankings those that are higher quality. Therefore, the correlation is between conversion rates and ad quality, while ad position is just tagging along with quality. Google showed this by studying the conversion rates of the exact same ads across different positions. They found that there was less than a 5% difference in conversion rates across all positions, including top and right.

So what is the lesson to be taken away from this by PPC marketers? Worry a little less about bidding higher CPCs to get better positioning. Rather, focus more on ad content as it relates to associated keywords. Of course, this is not to say that in every situation Google's research will hold true, but it's certainly worth taking into consideration when deciding whether to increase bids as the tactic to get higher traffic.

Domus provides a full array of internet marketing services, including internet presence management, social media marketing, SEO, and SEM services, among others. We're a full service marketing communications agency. Please visit our web site to find out more about us.

Video Games and Marketers

2009-08-19T11:09:00.003-04:00

The video game industry is in as much a recession as the rest of the country (Video Game Sales in Free Fall). But it is still roughly a two billion dollar a month industry and is poised for major growth over the next few months. Even separate from Sony's recent price cut of its PS3, most of the major new game titles of 2009 are scheduled to be released over the next 4-5 months (The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, etc.).

With that said, the video game industry is still a major untapped source of opportunity for marketers. In-game advertising is still a relatively small business (around $400 million now), as are other marketing tie-ins (similar to the way companies have advertising tie-ins to upcoming movie releases). Moreover, the demographics of the overall video game market is a lot broader than teenage boys. In fact, studies show a large audience of both men and women in their thirties (Video Gamers Older Than You Think).

As marketers are looking for ever new avenues to communicate their messages, this is one medium worthy of new or renewed attention.

Domus is a full-service advertising, PR, and internet marketing firm based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site for more.

Lottery Retailer Recruitment

2009-08-18T10:43:00.004-04:00

Products, such as lottery tickets, are often spur-of-the-moment purchases. These types of products benefit greatly by having broadly distributed buying opportunitites. States who have flat or too-slowly rising lottery sales can experience better returns on their marketing investment by funneling more funds into retailer recruitment programs vs. other areas. Of course, this doesn't mean that states should not create new lottery games or that states should not advertise their lotteries, but ignoring retailer recruitment can greately diminish their overall ROI.

Effective retailer recruitment programs should involve more than just telemarketing efforts to bring in new retailers. Marketing research focusing on geographically segmented demographics and buying habits should be an essential component of the program. So should investments in POS materials, training, and other support mechanisms. Even coordinating targeted advertising can be part of the overall program.

Domus is a full-service advertising and marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. We have been very successful in implementing lottery retailer recruitment programs, and see this as a continued growth avenue for state lotteries.

Marketing Innovation in a Downward Economy - State Lotteries

2009-08-17T09:05:00.004-04:00

Robert Budens, President of the Patent Office Professional Association once said, "Innovation is the way America generally gets out of downturns." In today’s economy, to keep your business above water and thriving, you’ll need to implement innovative techniques to help booster sales as well as keep office morale high so your loyal soldiers don’t abandon ship.

There are many innovative ways that can help drive sales and increase brand awareness. For instance in the lottery industry, proceeds are imperative to supporting seniors, funding education and other community programs so it’s important to find new ways to drive sales. The state lotteries could go beyond the traditional to revamp their websites and promote innovative campaigns through social networking sites to broaden their consumer base. Guerilla marketing campaigns are also successful tactics, driving consumers to purchase lottery tickets after witnessing attention-grabbing street promotions on their way to/from work. The possibilities are endless if you can start thinking outside the box, jar or whatever container holds your unconventional ideas captive.

Even though driving sales is top priority, building employee morale is just as important since they are instrumental in a company’s success. Institute friendly office competitions, establish theme days or simply distribute lottery tickets as a token of appreciation. Be as creative or traditional as you like.

Domus is a full-service advertising, public relations, interactive, and social media marketing agency based in Philadelphia. Our business model is unconventional, forward thinking and implemented specifically to meet the needs of our clients. For more information, visit our website, www.domusinc.com.

Give Your Clients What They Need

2009-08-13T00:37:00.004-04:00

What do you do when your client (or prospect) wants one thing but you know that something else is better for them? As an agency we are often faced with this situation, and it leaves us in a quandary. Do we accept money for effort we know will be ineffective or even damaging? Or do we remain firmly opposed? It's a tough situation. Ultimately, the customer is the boss and their wishes must be honored, but an agency has an almost fiduciary responsibility to make sure that the customer knows its measured opinion (and repeatedly if need be). Likewise, an agency would be remiss if it did not offer an unpopular recommendation to a prospect.

We're preparing a pitch right now for a (hopefully) new client, and we're facing this exact situation. We're going to include our unpopular but correct recommendation. In the long run we'll be happy we did.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications firm based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site for more.

Judge Rules that Microsoft Must Stop Selling Word

2009-08-12T14:06:00.004-04:00

Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas just ruled today that Microsoft violated a patent held by i4i of Canada, and such must stop selling Microsoft Word in the U.S. within 60 days. The dispute centers around Microsoft Word 2007's .docx file format. I just finished reading the abstract for i4i's U.S. Patent 5,787,449 and delved a little deeper into the .docx file format, and are a few of my thoughts.

First, it's ironic that Microsoft started developing the .docx format because of governmental pressure - both in the US and especially in Europe. Microsoft had been under attack for having a proprietary and closed format, and as such came up with the .docx format to satisfy its attackers. The format is both open (with published specs) and non-proprietary (submitted to standards bodies as an available format for others). One area of governmental legal systems first forced the development of a new format, and now another area is trying to kill it.
Patents in the software world are becoming so general and vague that they can potentially cover such broad areas, which in turn can dramatically stifle competitive innovation. This is a perfect example. In summary, this patent (filed in 1994 and granted in 1998) details an idea whereby instead of storing documents as one large file that combine both content (e.g., text) and formatting intermixed, they instead separate the content from the formatting markup into separate files, allowing content to be changed independently of style. However, the exact structure of the separation is not detailed in the patent, just the concept of separation. So, theoretically, nobody can come up with any future file format that splits the two, regardless of the technology to combine or display them. This is an example of a patent that should never have been granted because it is too broad. In the physical world, here's an analogy. Let's make believe that once upon a time all shoes were constructed as single solid pieces that you squeezed on your foot. Then someone came up with an idea (and patented it), saying that a new approach would be to separate the fitting of the shoe from the shoe itself - but they didn't explicitly invent shoelaces/eyelets or Velcro, metal clasps, etc. So, no future shoe manufacturer could now make shoe designs with clasps, laces, Velcro fasteners, or anything else without violating this patent.
The reason Microsoft's .docx format theoretically violates this patent is that although the .docx format looks like it is a single file (that incorporates both content and style), it actually does separate the two. The .docx format is basically a .zip (compressed) file. (See for yourself - change the extension of a Word document from .docx to .zip and then open it.) Within the zip structure are a number of XML files, where content and style are separated. However, because they are incorporated into a single .docx file, in practicality nobody works with the formatting and content components separately. Therefore, in the real world, even if there were some merit to the i4i patent, it really doesn't apply to .docx files.
Moreover, this has much broader implications than Microsoft. By far the most common technology today that uses the concept of separating content from format is CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This forms the basis of virtually every single web page around the world being created today. (The whole idea of CSS is to separate style information from HTML files, leaving the HTML files with principally content. All of the style information can then be maintained in CSS files, allowing web designers to change the entire look-and-feel of a site by just changing its "theme".) Moreover, virtually every software maker who makes web design tools, including Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and countless others, uses CSS. The CSS specification is managed by the World Wide Web Consortium, an international organization. Are they now the next target for a lawsuit? If so, does that put a halt on everybody's web development? If not, how can they not be targeted when CSS technology much more closely fits the pattern of the patent than the .docx file format?
Ironically, a few days ago Microsoft secured its own patent covering its XML-based format of its Office 2007 suite (including Word), Office Open XML (OOXML). Although patented, Microsoft has also offered the format to world as a free standard. (It is now accepted as an ISO and an ECMA standard.)

It's troubling when developers and marketers can't effectively develop and market because of situations like this. Let's just hope that a higher court rectifies this problem.

Domus is a full service advertising agency based in Philadelphia, with areas of expertise in multiple digital and interactive arenas. As both users and developers of technology, we follow closely situations such as this - as should most businesses. For more information on Domus, please visit our web site.

Google Search Engine Changes

2009-08-11T00:53:00.004-04:00

Google just posted on its webmaster blog (help-test-some-next-generation.html) that it would like feedback on a new working version of its search engine. Regardless of how good or bad the changes in the SERP rankings are, there will be changes, and marketers should prepare.

Based on a few quick tests on our agency web site's rank, so far we're happy. We tested 20 of our most tracked keyword phrases and the new Google ranked us higher (better) in 18 of the 20 with one tie. On the other hand, a few other sites we help manage had more mixed results. Interestingly, the difference between the better performing sites and keywords vs. the worse performing ones was related to the consistency of blogging efforts. The sites that had the related blogs with the most frequent posts fared better with Google's new engine.

The above results are preliminary, and as such we will dig deeper and then if necessary adjust our tactics accordingly. All advertising agencies should be doing likewise with their clients. For more information on Domus, please visit our web site.

State Lottery Winner Awareness

2009-08-10T09:59:00.005-04:00

Brand presence management is a vital service helping organizations manage how their brand is perceived in the digital space. This includes actively monitoring blogs, news, and other social communities for any communication that could present an opportunity or threat.

In the lottery industry, negative perceptions have always surrounded jackpot winners. Research has shown that a significant number of lottery winners lose their winnings within five years, a fact that appeals to the media and casts a negative light on lotteries in general. Little has been done to reshape the positive appeal of winner awareness; however internet presence management can easily turn adversaries into advocates. With a shift in focus to online news, blogs and social networks, there is an opportunity to transform how people view lotteries and shed positive light over winner awareness.

It’s common for state lotteries to list big winners on their websites, but little follow-up is done. An active internet presence management campaign would be ideal to help raise winner awareness, which will help drive sales. By utilizing social networks and industry blogs, lotteries can promote the success stories and philanthropy work that is attributed to lottery winners. Likewise, negative connotations can be countered through active blog monitoring and participation.

Domus is a full-service advertising, public relations, interactive, and social media marketing agency based in Philadelphia. We are advocates of building a strong internet presence for our clients and making the most of the opportunities the internet has to offer. For more information, visit our website, www.domusinc.com.

The Long Tail of (Web) TV

2009-08-07T10:18:00.004-04:00

As the major TV networks are struggling to sell advertising inventory this season (Reuters), other "networks" are showing vitality. And, although the story seems similar, this time it's not the cable TV networks - it's the web TV networks. Sites like youtube, hulu, and others are garnering larger and larger audiences every day.

One site, BlipTV, has particularly been in the news lately. They provide a platform for independent show creators to air their series, whereby the BlipTV people sell advertising time and create distribution channels, splitting the revenues with the show creators. Within the last couple of weeks they have signed or expanded deals with YouTube, Verizon FIOS, Tivo, and others to distribute their shows. So now, even while channel surfing using TV remotes, people can watch their favorite BlipTV shows just like they would other network or cable shows.

This is the beginning of a new revolution in TV - both for content production and for advertisers. Just like the introduction of tens or hundreds of cable channels changed how and what people watch, and just like the introduction of technologies such as DVRs did the same, the introduction of tens of thousands of new web-based networks along with new associated technologies are going to have a growing impact on people's watching patterns. This in turn will have an associated effect on advertising. How big is this nascent industry? Right now BlipTV garners 70,000,000 views per month, and it's only getting bigger.

Venues such as this give marketers the opportunity to target tight demographic groups. Moreover, large and small advertisers alike now have opportunities targeting very specific audiences. This includes pre- and post-roll ads as well as product placement and original content creation. Agencies such as Domus, Inc. should be well aware of the possibilities that are now available for their clients.

Kaizen and Advertising Agencies

2009-08-06T12:13:00.004-04:00

"Kaizen" ("improvement" in Japanese) is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvements throughout all one's life. Japanese companies have applied this philosophy to the workplace, where they continually search for improvements in all aspects of their business practices. The emphasis is on small continuous changes with monitoring feedback and adjustments as opposed to large-scale overhauls.

Up until recently, most of these improvements have focused on manufacturing and related processes. However, they might well be ready to move into the marketing and advertising area, and American marketers should take note. Toyota just announced that it is creating two internal marketing companies to start focusing on both its Japanese and worldwide advertising efforts. Their goal is not just to save money by bringing advertising and PR functions in-house; rather, they want the kaizen culture imbued in their entire marketing efforts, and they believe they can better do this in-house.

This might be a preface to bringing in-house their more than $1 billion advertising budget. If they are successful and this becomes a trend, Madison Avenue might have more problems than it already thinks it has. But moreover, it's a valid wake-up call to the entire industry. Although there are many aspects to marketing that are hard to quantify because they are creative in nature, there are also many aspects that are quantifiable and ripe for improvement. Who among us can assuredly say that none of our project lifecycles could not have been completed more quickly with fewer change cycles? Who can say that no mistakes have ever gotten through the cracks? And who currently has in place mechansims to track things like this as well as processes to continually improve them?

Those of us who do not might well find our businesses suffering or even dying. On the other hand, those of us who embrace these ideas might well have new opportunities that we had not realized were available to us. At Domus, we have spent the last few years working on improving what we already considered a lean, effective organization. But we can't - and won't - rest from this process. Please click on our web site to find out more about us.

Digital Marketing Focus

2009-08-05T13:44:00.003-04:00

I was just reading an article in Advertising Age about Taco Bell selecting a new digital marketing agency to make over their web presence and one of the things that struck me was what I didn't read. I didn't see anything about Taco Bell's overall focus or how the new agency's efforts were going to be integrated into the overall marketing strategy. Sometimes marketers get so focused on key components of their marketing tactics that the broader picture is lost.

As marketers, it is our responsibility to always ensure that every decision remains grounded in the overall strategic approach supporting our brand and corporate positions. At Domus, we make sure that we always do this. Please visit our web site for more.

Advertising, PR, and Good Brand Positioning

2009-08-04T09:47:00.004-04:00

In yesterday's post I commented on the importance of starting with a good brand position and positioning statement as the basis of further advertising and PR efforts. "Advertising campaigns that are intriguing for no reason other than to intrigue do not add to long term brand value. Generating short-term buzz without reinforcing a brand's position does little more than just generating buzz."

Conversely, great brand positioning without good supportive communications (advertising, PR, internet presence management, social media marketing) is also minimally effective. If no one hears your message (advertising) or believes your message (PR, internet presence management, social media marketing), or remembers your message (all), it doesn't matter what your message is.

Good marketing is the synthesis of all of these, along with company culture, product development, customer service, and more - all coordinated to support one underlying product or brand position.

If you are not constantly focusing on all of these in this supportive manner, it's time to take a step back and revisit what you're doing. One of the biggest benefits that agencies such as Domus can and should provide to clients is the application of these basic, classic marketing principles. Please contact us to find out more.

Good Brand Positioning

2009-08-03T00:33:00.005-04:00

Ford Motor Company is planning on announcing later today that its monthly sales increased for the first time in two years (Wall Street Journal). Moreover, over the last year, Ford has regularly posted stronger results than its competitors, gaining market share in nine of the last ten months. In the meantime, GM and Chrysler are regularly running ads promoting sales through the government's "cash for clunkers" program. So, two struggling companies promote a program that can benefit all competitors, and the company who has done the best job of positioning itself reaps the greatest rewards.

All marketers should take note. Advertising that ignores or precludes good brand positioning is not effective in the long term; conversely, good brand positioning enables a brand to take advantage of future marketing opportunities. Advertising campaigns that are intriguing for no reason other than to intrigue (such as the new Palm Pre ads in Advertising Age) do not add to long term brand value. Generating short-term buzz without reinforcing a brand's position does little more than just generating buzz.

Domus has always grounded its marketing consulting in classic marketing principles, including good brand positioning as the basis for advertising and other communications. Please visit our web site to find out more about us.

Brand Building in the Recession

2009-07-31T10:42:00.005-04:00

The government just released their numbers on the economy, and they're still no good. So, although there might not be a lot you can do to improve your sales in the short run, brand-building is a long-term process. Now is the time to review your brand position, your brand strengths and weaknesses, your current and desired audience demographics, and your competition. Now is the time to lay the communications groundwork such that when people start buying, your brand is front and center in their minds. So, what are you doing?

As a full service marketing communications agency, we are actively engaged in helping our clients position their brands weather the recession and also grow fast when it eases.

Microsoft - Yahoo Deal - The Real Value

2009-07-30T03:47:00.004-04:00

For those of us standing in the sidelines, the buzz about the Microsoft - Yahoo deal is positive because people feel that the partnership will finally provide some competition to Google. However, Google's share was 65% before the deal and it remains 65% after the deal. So, how does the deal enhance competition? For one, as both Carol Bartz (Yahoo) and Steve Balmer (Microsoft) indicated, the increased scale will provide enough volume for advertisers to bid on both platforms.

But strategically, there is another positive aspect to the partnership, one that has not been discussed by either party (or third parties). Separate, both Yahoo and Microsoft are struggling a little in their own ways. In the search market, Yahoo has stagnated and Microsoft has not yet been able to capture significant market share. Microsoft is making one last big push now, with its Bing launch, to get that share, but without the merger, that posed a potentially dangerous outcome to both Yahoo and Microsoft. Why? Microsoft's launch is backed by hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising money. But as we've discussed in prior posts, the more Microsoft advertises, the more news outlets, pundits, and bloggers analyze Bing with respect to Google. Only a small portion of the online buzz had been including Yahoo in those comparisons. Therefore, the major long-term result of that campaign might well have been BOTH Google and Microsoft taking share from Yahoo - not Microsoft taking share from Google.

That obviously would have been bad for Yahoo, but it would also have been bad for Microsoft. Even if Microsoft and Google together gobbled up all of Yahoo's share (relatively evenly), Google's share would have gone up from 65% to over 75%, while Microsoft's share wouldn't even reach 20%. Google's added size would have made it that much tougher to compete against.

However, by entering the partnership, Microsoft's and Yahoo's shares will effectively be one combined share with no internal competition. That in turn frees up both parties to focus on Google instead of each other.

At Domus, we remain very involved in the news being reported throughout the industry.

Microsoft / Yahoo Deal - Work for Us to Do

2009-07-29T00:52:00.004-04:00

Are you engaged in any SEO or PPC efforts on any web sites? Do you know your relative rankings (for SEO) or cost-per-click (for PPC) in Bing vs. Yahoo? If not, now's the time to start analyzing those numbers.

It looks like the Microsoft / Yahoo search deal is about to close, and Bing will become the new search engine behind Yahoo. When that happens, all of your Yahoo ranks and costs will change. It will probably be a couple of months before everything is finalized, which gives some time. So, between now and then marketers should develop and execute plans to modify SEO and PPC efforts to ensure consistent Yahoo results.

Domus is currently undergoing this review with its clients. Are you?

Integrated Marketing - Misleading Term

2009-07-28T01:18:00.003-04:00

We often see the term "integrated marketing" in news reports, in company literature, and in other places. At first glance, this seems like a phrase that's right on the mark, a sign that marketers know what they're doing. However, when I see "integrated marketing" I see someone who has forgotten the true meaning of "marketing".

As Al Ries wrote in his recent post in Advertising Age, marketing is the job of coordinating "all the various disciplines inside a corporation in order to develop the right product, the right price, the right position, the right distribution strategy and the right brand name." However, when most people talk about "integrated marketing", they limit their viewpoint to a mixed advertising, PR, and/or social media campaign -- the end-points of marketing, not the end-all.

As a marketing agency, Domus remains well aware of our responsibility to our clients to not only help them communicate with their market, but to help them develop and execute all components of their marketing efforts.

SEM and the Microsoft / Yahoo Deal

2009-07-27T09:23:00.004-04:00

Advertising Age is reporting an imminent deal between Microsoft and Yahoo, part of which would probably involve making Microsoft's Bing the default search engine for Yahoo. There are many implications for many people in this deal, but let's look at some basic ones for search engine marketers.

First and foremost, marketers will see changing traffic patterns in their web sites. All of the search engines rank sites differently for various keywords. Therefore, when the deal goes through, Yahoo's old rankings will change to be in line with Bing's rankings. This means that if you had a great position in Yahoo and a poorer one in Bing, your position will drop and your search traffic will probably reflect that. (And conversely, if Bing ranked you better, your traffic will be better off.)

Likewise, if you have a paid search program that is designed to complement your rankings in organic search (e.g., buying ads where your organic ranking is not high enough), then the foundation on which you made your decisions might change overnight. You might be buying ads for keywords where you now have high rankings or not buying ads for keywords where you now rank poorly.

As marketers, and especially as agencies overseeing our clients' marketing efforts, we should all start reviewing our current metrics and our strategies and tactics based on those metrics to see what we need to change. At Domus, we pride ourselves at being a very nimble advertising agency, and as such are already starting our reviews. Are you?

Housing Market Improvement

2009-07-24T02:44:00.003-04:00

A number of stories have hit the news this week indicating that the housing market is starting to improve. If this is true, companies whose sales are directly correlated to the housing market should start seeing their potential sales opportunities increase. The marketers who start their campaigns now will be in the best position to take advantage of the uptick.

Domus is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. We pride ourselves on our nimble service and are already heavily involved in marketing plans with our housing-related clients. Please visit our web site for information about us.

Traditional Advertising Still Effective

2009-07-23T11:12:00.004-04:00

Two current news stories caught my eye today. One is today's financial results from Hershey, where they reported strong increases in both profits and revenue, partly attributable to significantly increased advertising budgets. The other was a set of stories on KFC. Again, following a large advertising campaign their Kentucky Grilled Chicken product launch is one of the best in their history. And now one of KFC's competitors (El POllo) is also scoring big in California because of a large advertising campaign.

Pundits repeatedly talk about the "death of advertising", whether it's in relation to public relations or to social media marketing. But time and again, companies who effectively incorporate advertising into their overall marketing strategy continue to succeed. Traditional advertising is certainly not the same as it was 10-20 years ago, but it is still undoubtably effective. Marketers should not dismiss it as an integral component of their marketing tool box as they move to newer, digital avenues. All media are potentially useful in one situation or another.

Domus, Inc. is a dynamic marketing agency that continues to successfully marry new technologies with classic marketing principles and media to develop effective, integrated strategies and campaigns for our clients. Please visit our web site for more information.

Search Engine Profits and Trends

2009-07-22T00:39:00.005-04:00

Yahoo just reported their most recently quarterly earnings, and the numbers aren't too good. Overall revenue fell by about 13%; even search revenue fell. (Profits increased, but only because of strong cost-cutting measures, including layoffs.) Google, on the other hand, released their numbers a few days ago, and they showed revenue and profit increases. (Microsoft will release its numbers later this week.)

This doesn't bode well for Yahoo, and should be a warning flag for search engine marketers everywhere. Yahoo is still number two in terms of search, but the writing on the wall is not positive. (And this does not even take into account Microsoft's launch and aggressive marketing campaign for Bing.)

As search engine marketers, we should all closely monitor our analytics reports over the next six to nine months to ensure that we continue to allocate our budgets in line with the evolving realities of the market.

Marketing communications agencies such as Domus should be especially diligent, being the stewards of our clients' budgets. Please visit our web site to find out more about us.

Digital Advertising and Classic Marketing Principles

2009-07-21T09:35:00.004-04:00

A lot of people are talking about recent research numbers from Forrester and [x+1] showing the recent and projected rises in digital advertising, led by search engine marketing (SEM) spending. These correspond to a continued drop in traditional spending but also an overall lack of confidence is marketers' expectations of search ad performance.

Companies are moving more and more to digital and to search in particular because that is a critical component of today's marketing environment. Moreover, investing in SEM is safer, especially in today's troubled economy, because it is easier to justify a spending avenue with a superior ROI. But does SEM spending truly give a superior ROI? In the short run, its effective impact is easily measurable; however, that does not take into account the more subjective value of long-term advertising and PR campaigns whose goals are not necessarily immediate conversions, but increased brand awareness.

Today's superior ROI from SEM comes partly from the months and years of work building brand positions using traditional marketing principles. Companies that forget those principles and rely solely on short-term measurable SEM conversion statistics might well find that over time they are getting a diminishing return on their search dollars because they've slowly let their brand positions decline.

Domus is a dynamic marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. We have been leading the charge with our clients to effectively embrace all of the exciting opportunities available to marketers today. But we haven't lost sight of the fundamental principles that must underly every strategy. Please visit our web site to find out more about us.

Get Active on Twitter Now!

2009-07-20T10:38:00.004-04:00

Or Maybe Not...

The news media are full of stories about Twitter, including the most recent stories about how Twitter has gotten millions of dollars of free publicity. So, technically, the news media are full of stories about how they themselves have mentioned Twitter a lot on their stories. And that of course means that everybody should jump on Twitter immediately because it is so hot.

But what metrics out there show that getting active on Twitter is a worthwhile investment for companies? Mashable recently posted an article on how food trucks are successfully using Twitter. This is a good example of situations where the vendors have a reasonable use for the technology and can actually measure whether their investments are paying off. (Does lunch traffic increase or not when sending tweets?) It's also an example where the investments are negligible once the operating formula is in place. (How much time does it take to say, "We've reached such-and-such street intersection. Special today is x."?)

Other businesses, though, might or might not be a little harder pressed to find a viable reason to use Twitter. How much effort is involved in creating a regular stream of Tweets? How much effort does it take to build a large enough base of truly interested followers? How many of them translate into new site traffic, added purchases, or further brand proselytization? How many of those people would have received brand communications anyway from other, already existing media?

Twitter is very hot right now, and as such marketers should pay attention to it. Some marketers might find worthwhile uses for it, as with the food vendors. But as with other (previously) hot technologies, jumping on the bandwagon just to jump on it does not necessarily make it a worthwhile investment. (How are companies' Second Life virtual worlds doing these days?)

Companies Who Don't "Get" Twitter

2009-07-17T09:30:00.003-04:00

Advertising Age just posted an article titled, "How Twitter Can Help or Hurt an Airline". It relates how Southwest Airlines has successfully used Twitter in its marketing efforts while some other airlines have not had as much success.

Although this is an oversimplification, in a nutshell companies that don't "get" Twitter (or other technologies) are really overanalyzing them. It comes down to classic marketing principles. When you strip away the uniqueness of the technology, the same principles are always relevant and applicable. In this situation, the issues with legacy airlines and Twitter boil down to simple customer service. Twitter allows customers to accelerate and propagate their thoughts faster and wider than previous technologies, which means that the impact on marketers if they don't pay attention is greater. Pay attention to your customers, and do your best to make your customers enjoy you so much they want to be your advocates. Now, with that philosophy, look at how each technology can help you do that. (And if you still don't "get" it, look at what the people who do "get" it are doing.)

Domus is a Philadelphia-based classic marketing agency with significant strengths in internet and social media marketing. Our goals, strategies, and tactics always balance the foundations of classic principles with the opportunities of new technologies and a changing social and business fabric. Please visit our web site for more.

Internet Presence Management and Net Promoter

2009-07-16T08:42:00.006-04:00

A few years ago Fred Reichfeld started the Net Promoter® movement with his book, The Ultimate Question. This book encourages business people to frame their business activities by asking one simple question about their customers, "How likely are they to recommend/promote me?" The Net Promoter movement has grown up around that with philosophies, strategies, and tactics to help companies maximize the number of their customer promoters while minimizing the number of detractors. It's a pretty simple concept but with many implications for conducting business.

Today, with the acceleration of marketing efforts moving from traditional media to on-line and with the explosion of consumer social media participation, Net Promoter (NP) practitioners must incorporate new these technologies into their business strategies and tactics. Technology hasn't changed the basic principles of NP - it's just added more possible ways in which to apply the principles. (This is no different than any other aspect of marketing - advertising, public relations, etc. The classic principles still apply, but the possible applications of those principles have greatly expanded.)

A broad-based and proactive internet presence management program today is essential to any successful NP program, and the reason is simple. Given any two consumers - whether promoters or detractors - if one promotes or detracts online and the other doesn't, the former's voice is potentially heard by many more people. This consumer voice amplification is the driving imperative for all internet presence management programs.

Domus is a full service advertising, public relations, interactive, and social media marketing agency based in Philadelphia. We are big advocates of robust internet presence management programs for our clients, including integrating them into expanded net promoter practices. Please visit our web site for more information about us.

Arrogant Marketing - Advertising Agencies

2009-07-15T11:25:00.005-04:00

This is my third post in the last three months on arrogant marketing. In my previous two posts (Arrogant Marketing - Bank of America and Arrogant Marketing - How Not to "Be The Client") I related stories of how marketers improperly communicated to their customers and prospects.

Today's post is about marketers complaining about their (prospective) clients. Advertising Age just ran an article relating how an advertising agency openly blasted Zappos for their RFP process, specifically for not taking enough time to thoroughly read their response. Zappos had recently launched an agency review, putting out an open RFP call, which resulted in more than 80 responses. One of the agencies submitted their response via their web site, but also installed analytics tracking software on their site; therefore, they were able to track exactly what pages Zappos looked at and for how long. As it turned out, Zappos did not look at too many of their pages and did not stay on any of the pages too long. Needless to say, the agency was not selected. However, the agency decided to lash out at Zappos in their agency blog. They complained that Zappos opened the process up to too many agencies and they complained that Zappos didn't look at enough of the pages that they had worked so hard at. ("If agencies are going to spend weeks preparing their response, the least any client can do is commit 30 minutes to look at it.") Moreover, the agency made it clear that future companies hoping to be graced by their presence will get the same treatment. ("If we reply to any RFPs in the future, we'll be letting the prospective clients know that our submission will be online and that we'll be measuring how much time is spent reviewing it.")

At what point did marketers start feeling that they were entitled to a specific amount of a prospects' time? Will job applicants now also start demanding that companies review their resumes for at least 15 minutes before discarding them? Will consumers owe us at least 15 seconds of any 30-second spot because we worked so hard at it?

What struck me as much as the arrogant hubris of this agency was the number of supportive comments by other agencies. There are obviously a lot of agencies who have forgotten that they are not owed any business.

Not only do we as agencies have to earn our business, we have to earn every second of our clients' attention. It's no different than earning every second of our consumers' attention. If our creative work doesn't grab, inspire, engage, and stick with a consumer, we have no right to expect them to stay. We're supposed to be communications experts - it's our job to excite and captivate people from the opening sentence of our communication to the closing sentence. If we can't do that, we have no one to blame but ourselves. It's no different with our pitches to our clients.

At Domus we understand the importance of captivating and winning our audience - all of our audiences - all of the time. And we do it well. For more information, please visit us at http://www.domusinc.com. We promise we won't track how long you stay on our site!

Stay Rooted in Fundamental Marketing Principles

2009-07-13T00:38:00.004-04:00

Advertising Age just posted an article reporting how a number of ad agencies are heavily discounting their services as a tactic in this recession. It's interesting that agencies, who should know the long-term negative impact of devaluing a brand, are doing just that when they discount or give away their services.

What message about their abilities is being communicated to the market? One message that I would take out of it is that these agencies haven't really learned some basic classic marketing principles. As such, I'd be concerned about any strategy that they would suggest to me.

Recessionary times are tough, but giving away long-term value for dubious short-term possibilities is a very suspect strategy. At Domus, our strategic thinking is rooted in fundamental, classic marketing principles, from which we develop ideas effective for today's market place.

Do a Search on Search Engines

2009-07-10T10:00:00.004-04:00

When is top listing in organic (or paid) search not important? When you have strong brand awareness (and a simple, intuitive web site name).

As an example, go to Google, Bing, or Yahoo and do a search on "search engine" or "search engines". The top listings are dogpile.com, altavista.com, and ask.com. But what percentage of the people use those engines compared to Google, Bing, or Yahoo?

So, a lesson to be learned from a marketer's perspective is to not forget classic marketing principles of brand management. Search engine marketing is a tool in the overall approach, but it is not the single answer.

Domus is a full service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. Our history is deeply rooted in classic marketing principles, but we thrive on integrating those with the opportunities and realities of today's world. Visit our web site to find out more.

Microsoft Gaining on Yahoo

2009-07-09T12:02:00.004-04:00

Mashable.com reported today numbers from Compete.com showing how Bing's traffic has spiked, with Bing now passing Twitter, Digg, and CNN in terms of traffic. A number of sites have related posts, but there seems to be another story in the numbers.

As we've discussed in previous posts, Microsoft's main competitor today is not Google, but Yahoo. Only after Microsoft can pass Yahoo can it challenge Google. So, what do Compete's numbers tell us about this competition? First, note that Yahoo (unlike Google) is much more than a search engine; it is a portal with a busy home page contain news, search, email, weather, and more. Therefore, it really is more comparable to the sum of msn.com (or live.com) and bing.com than to any one individually.

So, how does it compare? Looking at the below chart from Compete.com, the first thing that is apparent is that Microsoft has closed the gap with Yahoo since the beginning of the year. Next, if you add up live.com and bin.com's traffic compared to Yahoo's, in the month of June they SIGNIFICANTLY closed the gap.

However, I'm not sure how Compete adds up its numbers for Microsoft. For example, live.com redirects to bing.com but mail.live.com does not. Moreover, msn.com more closely competes with yahoo.com's news and weather features. And searches on msn.com go to bing.com's results page. Regardless, it's interesting to see all of Microsoft's sites.

Even ignoring live.com's traffic, the sum of msn.com plus bing.com significantly exceeds Yahoo's traffic (with the above caveats noted).

Google Analytics and WebTrends Mis-Report Bing Traffic

2009-07-09T11:18:00.003-04:00

Our SEM team has found that there is a glitch in both Google Analytics and in WebTrends, whereby they identify organic traffic from Bing as being from a referring site. Google supposedly is working on fixing this, but because WebTrends is installed in-house the fix is a little more involved.

SEM marketers should take note when reviewing site traffic.

Domus is a full-service internet marketing, advertising, and public relations agency based in Philadelphia. Click on our web site to find out more about us.

Marketing Today - Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit

2009-07-07T12:17:00.005-04:00

Especially in recessionary days like this, companies need to be smart about their marketing. That's one of the reasons why I'm regularly amazed when I am brought into situations to review companies' marketing needs. There are typically a number of simple, inexpensive steps that they can take to immediately improve their positions. Some companies have bad image problems, some low image recognition, some just need an improved web site or some SEO work on their site, etc.

Unfortunately, too often companies remain paralyzed, unable or unwilling to take small steps because they are not ready to commit to the larger ones. Alternately, other companies are blinded to their needs because they have been too immersed for too long in their ongoing efforts.

If you want a quick boost to your marketing efforts, bring someone with a fresh set of eyes. Clear your mind, listen to the suggestions, and then select and execute some small action plans that will cost little but show noticeable returns. Pick the low-hanging fruit.

Domus is a Philadelphia advertising agency, PR firm, and interactive marketing agency with clients across the United States. Click on our web site for more information.

Delivering the Best Creative Ideas

2009-07-06T16:19:00.003-04:00

Too often, agencies and other marketers look at the creative process as some mystical art form. As such, there is no scientific formula for either creating great ideas (including tag lines, ad copy, logos, other art work, etc.) or evaluating the ideas that have been generated.

There certainly is a significant amount of subjective evaluation that some people are better or worse at than others. See Al Ries' latest article in Advertising Age - Advertising Could Do With More of Bernbach's Genius, subtitled, "Recognizing Good Ideas Can Be More Important than Creativity".

However, well-managed organizations such as our marketing communications agency, Domus, can do three simple things to dramatically improve the effectiveness of creative work that makes it to the pitch stage.

First, prior to setting loose the creative staff, clearly write down and state the considerations (e.g., background, environment, etc., restrictions) and goals of the task.
Next, require that the creative staff deliver, along with their creative ideas, a written statement of how their concepts meet all of the originally stated goals and considerations, or (if they don't) a reason why not.
As part of the evaluation stage, refer back to the original list of goals and considerations. Use that list to ask questions such as, "What was our desired positioning?", "What is the implicit positioning of the delivered concepts?", etc.

The intent is not to suffocate right-brain creative license with left-brain analysis, but to achieve a balance between the two for maximum effectiveness.

Madison Avenue Hits are Smaller Agency Opportunities

2009-07-03T09:21:00.004-04:00

As reported in sites such as MediaPost, Wall Street is downgrading the stocks of some major Madison Avenue agency holding companies. What does this mean for the industry as a whole?

At Domus we see huge possibilities all around us. Large agencies are typically bloated with significant overhead, which in turn translates to higher costs for their clients. A smaller agency, if structured and managed well, can be more nimble in responding to the shifts in the marketplace. As such, companies pulling back from the large agencies are prime opportunities for these smaller, more agile ones.

Our new business pipeline is currently larger than it has been in several years. And I would bet that other dynamic, nimble agencies are also seeing similar opportunities.

Domus is a full service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia, PA. Please visit our web site to find out more about us.

Bing and Twitter - Not Much News for Marketers (Yet)

2009-07-02T09:35:00.003-04:00

One big news story yesterday in the search world was that Bing started including prominent Twitter tweets in its search results. This might provide Bing an advantage in people's minds over Google and Yahoo, which in turn might give it more market share, which in the end would affect marketers (suggesting reallocation of budgets). But in and of itself, it probably doesn't change much in the short run from a marketer's perspective. For search engine marketers, there are basically three categories of places where one can get exposure - in organic search ranking, in paid search listings, or as content in the sites that people go to when people click on a result (if not yours) from a search engine results page. Given that Twitter currently has no monetization formula, there isn't much opportunity to get exposure on Twitter sites if people click to them; therefore, marketers' paid search allocations should remain basically the same.

The one exception to this is if any of the current list of "dominant" Twitter sites can be encouraged to tweet about you or your product. However, this is still a relatively small segment of the marketing universe.

Although this is one small area relating to Twitter that might or might not offer possibilities, there are still other Twitter-related opportunities for marketers. As a full-service marketing communications agency, Domus integrates all new media and technologies, including Twitter, into its potential tactics when formulating campaigns for its clients. To find out more about us, please click on our web site.

SEO vs. PPC - The Wrong Question

2009-07-01T00:16:00.003-04:00

As referenced in articles such as SearchEngineWatch.com's Selling SEO Projects Against PPC Campaigns, marketers and marketing consultants at times must decide between PPC and SEO budgets. But this "either-or" approach misses the mark.

SEO and PPC should be two integral parts of the same campaigns, each individually less effective without the other. SEO is more effective at attracting the larger masses of searches, and typically has more inherent credibility by the searchers, but PPC is more effective at nimbly targeting changing long tails of searches. Moreover, PPC is ideally suited as a short-term testing ground to steer longer term SEO efforts.

Smart marketers use both of these tools, along with others (such as social media tactics) to maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns. At Domus, Inc., a full service integrated marketing communications agency, we work with our clients researching, developing, executing, analyzing, and continually refining integrated marketing campaigns. Visit us at our web site for more about us.

Breath New Life into Your Marketing

2009-06-30T07:29:00.004-04:00

How excited is your marketing department? What is the level of enthusiasm in your office? If the energy is not there like it once was, it might be time for a game-changer. This might be true whether or not you have an (ad) agency of record and whether or not you're satisfied with your current marketing efforts.

What do I mean by a game-changer? Bring in new blood to review what you're doing, make suggestions, throw out new ideas. Very often, a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective is all you need to jump-start and rejuvenate a stale situation. For a relatively small overall investment your potential upside can be significant.

Contact Domus today to find out how we can breath new life into your marketing efforts.

Arrogant Marketing - Bank of America

2009-06-29T00:22:00.005-04:00

I wrote an entry here few weeks ago, also titled Arrogant Marketing. In that post, I discussed how some companies' marketing approaches forget who owes whom a "Thank you" and who owes whom a "Congratulations." Today's post, though, is of a different nature. I heard on the radio an ad from Bank of America. It was the second time I heard the ad, and both times I had a viscerally negative reaction. Upon thinking about it I realized why.

The Bank of America ad was the one promoting their Bank of America military credit cards in advance of the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. In the ad, they exhort people to show their patriotic colors by signing up for the Bank of America "military" credit cards, which proudly display the red, white, and blue. By buying the card, we supposedly show support for the country and our military.

My problem, though, with the ad, was that it seemed like it was bordering on trickery. Many companies take advantage of upcoming holidays to promote services, and many companies show their support for causes by combining promotions with charitable giving. However, Bank of America's promotion is different because, as they indicated in the legalese at the end of the ad, Bank of America's military credit card is not endorsed by the US military or any military organization, nor does Bank of America donate any money to any military or veterans' causes through use of the card.

So what's the point? They're just selling a credit card with a picture of the Stars and Stripes. But, unless you listen to the legalese, the pitch almost makes you think that Bank of America is joining you in support of our military families. In that sense, it's a little arrogant of them to think that they can fool consumers by positioning their ad as such. Moreover, I think it is a little dumb and short-sighted. How much expense would be involved in donating a tiny fraction of card fees to military family causes? And how much good publicity could they get? Instead, they get me and everyone reading this thinking less of them.

As marketers, we at Domus work hard to make sure that our clients market honestly and effectively, without making mistakes like this. For more information, please click on our web site for more.

Internet Presence Management and Social Media Marketing

2009-06-26T07:29:00.004-04:00

At our agency, Domus, the term "Internet Presence Management" comes up a lot. We define it pretty broadly and allow for many new ideas to be incorporated into it. But basically, we work from the principle that although the online world has its own set of (millions of) minds and is not (and should be not be) controlled by marketers, there is a certain amount of conversation leading that effective and honest marketers can accomplish. Within the strict boundaries of honesty and openness, there is a lot that we can do.

Since we started our transition as an agency years ago to embrace and evolve internet presence management, the online world has changed dramatically. The biggest changes, in our minds, have been the explosion in usage of social sites, especially Facebook and Twitter.

As marketers focusing significant amounts of time on internet presence management, we've certainly needed to take note of these sites. But although in some ways they are significantly different than other social media sites, in many respects they are the same. They are sites where people hold or might hold online conversations; therefore, they are sites that can be used to offer conversations, to lead others, and to participate constructively in still others. The specific tactics used in Facebook and Twitter differ from each other and differ from the tactics used in other areas, but as long as the tactics line up with the sites' characteristics and with the brands' strategic goals, then they will be effective.

As an full service marketing communications agency, we're pretty excited about how these media are evolving and how we are using them. Please visit our web site for more.

Agencies and Facebook / Twitter Social Media Marketing

2009-06-25T10:04:00.004-04:00

Facebook and Twitter, the two current kings of social media, offer marketers a number of opportunities but also many false hopes. As an example, Facebook garners about 200 million unique visitors per month, about half of whom use the site every day. However, the largest segment of that user community - 18-24 year-olds - is one of the most adept demographics at avoiding clicking or even looking at display ads. So regardless of how targeted Facebook ads can be, they're generally not being viewed. Twitter, on the other hand, has a strong 18-34 and even 35-49 user base, but doesn't really have a display ad model. (In fact, they currently don't have any revenue generation model, yet.)

So, what options are available for marketers? Although the click-through rate is low, display ads are still a viable option on Facebook (but use the pay-per-cick model, not the impressions model). However, the real value of these two venues is in attracting followers/fans. Give people a reason to want to come to your Facebook page or to follow your Twitter brand, and you will over time build a base of either potential customers or strong idea influencers/disseminators.

Therefore, the first question marketers need to ask themselves is whether or not they have a brand, a product, and/or an idea/opinion that others would find worthy of following. Obviously, this is an area where a good marketing communications agency's value can really shine. It's not always obvious to the social media novice what positioning or strategy might be appealing enough to garner a following.

The next crucial area is the development of the strategy and tactics to initially get, maintain, and continually increase the follower/fan base (but more importantly, a qualified, targeted base). Social media is one of the fast growing, but also fasted evolving areas of the internet. Therefore, strategies and tactics that worked yesterday won't necessarily work tomorrow. So it's important to regularly be part of the online communities to see what's happening. However, basic principles of social media, such as offering honest, interesting content while soliciting and engaging in respectful conversations, will always apply. Whatever process is used, though, this is again an area where a creative and dynamic marketing agency can truly provide value to its customers.

Next, the truly successful social media marketers understand what to do with their followers/fans. These people, in essence should become not just your best prospects, but your extended sales force, your Q&A department, your viral marketers, your customer service department, and your R&D group (idea generation), among others - but most importantly, your partners. Again, a full-service marketing communications agency should help its clients develop and execute an ongoing strategy to accomplish this.

Domus, a full service marketing communications agency has been in business for over thirteen years. In that time, using its unique business model, it has been adept and nimbly changing and adapting to marketing and social trends, while maintaining its core roots in classic marketing principles. Domus has a dynamic and growing internet marketing division, of which social media marketing is a strong focus. For more information, please visit our web site.

Google’s Development Strategy for Social Media

2009-06-24T10:15:00.006-04:00

Google, the multi-armed Shiva of modern technology companies, has experienced only moderate success in its endeavors outside of its core competency: search. Forays into and acquisitions of businesses with alternate business models such as social media (Orkut), micro-blogging (Jaiku), and wiki-format encyclopedias (Knol) have been met with mixed success. Even those Google ventures that maintain a good market share, such as YouTube and Blogger, have had revenue-generation models that were closely tied to search and paid-per-click advertising, Google’s bread and butter. Additionally, these services have not generated even a small fraction of what Google’s core business has.

It is easy to look at some of these acquisitions and endeavors and scoff at the quirkiness of feel-goodery web companies, especially one famous for its playfulness, relaxed work environment, and corporate policy that allows employees 20% of their at-work time for personal side projects. However, when a lot of these decisions are looked at in retrospect, the cleverness and interconnectedness of Google’s strategy is sometimes stunningly, sometimes almost scarily efficient.

A couple of examples, to reinforce my point that Google’s real strategy is not always that clear:

- Blogger: the free-to-use blog-publishing platform has absolutely no revenue stream in and of itself. However, the blog explosion of the early and mid-2000’s help to fuel Google’s AdSense program, which increased their “search partners”, “content network” and off-site (google.com) revenue stream.

- GOOG-411: Many questioned the wisdom of a “new media” company getting involved with the 411/directory business, especially as search seemed to be replacing the usefulness of such services. However, GOOG-411 was not an end-game business but rather a means to an end. Specifically, Google used the voice recognition data they received from GOOG-411 to develop their search-by-voice apps which are now available on nearly every major mobile operating system. This development process, which seemed a little counter-intuitive when it first began, has given Google a foot-up in the mobile realm that takes advantage of the medium’s on-the-go nature and multiple hardware devices (with or without full keyboards).

- YouTube: Monetization of this social video site has been slow and Google has been losing millions every quarter supporting the massive infrastructure and bandwidth needed for the site. Very few would disagree with the idea that online video consumption will continue to increase exponentially, but in-video ads (which Google has been testing) do not seem to generate the volume of revenue that could push the site into the black. The real problem is that Google’s core competency, search, is hard to apply to videos where content is not easily indexable and so Google has had to rely on user descriptions which are very limited in their accuracy and usefulness. What Google needs/needed was an accurate way to index their massive video library so that video search could stand on it own, without inexact descriptions, reviews and comments propping it up, and so that the successful AdWords revenue model could be applied to the video site. With GOOG-411 and their newly enhanced voice recognition software, Google now has the technology to begin serious indexing of YouTube, or at least its audio. Wondering if they want to index the images of YouTube in the same, automated manner? Keep an eye on Google Image Search and the Android operating system for image-recognition technology and apps… that’ll be your first clue.

With the idea that Google pursues these side projects out of whimsy disproved, how do we perceive the search giant’s recent product announcements and strategy shifts? The increasing inclusion of Google Talk (chat and video messaging) across all their web properties, the emphasis of Google Profiles (a simplified Facebook parallel) within search and other services, and the introduction of Google Wave (a real-time collaboration and communication platform), seem to represent parts of a comprehensive social networking strategy. Pair these with Google Friend Connect and Google’s involvement with open social network standards, such as OpenID and OpenSocial, and it becomes relatively apparent that Google wants to become the driving force or the at least the connecting glue for a new, decentralized social media landscape.

So, what does Google’s push into social networking mean for advertisers? Well, if Google becomes more involved in this industry, advertisers may see the sort of increased effectiveness, ROI, and trustworthiness that they’ve come to expect from Google translated into the sometimes risky arena of advertising on social networks. This development, if successful, will be good news for advertisers, good news for Google, and if their platform is truly open and as flexible Wave and their other solutions seem, then it will also be good news for users who are already losing valuable time managing multiple social network accounts with different logins, components, and quirks.

For more information regarding social networking, search marketing, and traditional marketing and public relations, visit Domus Marketing and Communications website.

Facebook, Twitter, Collecta, CrowdEye, Hunch, Bing, WolframAlpha, Cuil...What Else?

2009-06-23T00:15:00.006-04:00

Is 2009 the Year Search Engine Marketing Changes?

It's amazing how fast things are moving now. First there is the incredible volume of traffic and content that has moved and is moving to Facebook. Then Twitter took the world by storm and everyone now is scrambling to "Tweet." Now we're getting one new "search" engine after another. First there was http://www.cuil.com, then http://www.wolframalpha.com, then http://www.bing.com (Microsoft's revamped and rebranded Live.com search), and in the last week we have http://www.hunch.com and two new engines, http://www.collecta.com and http://www.crowdeye.com. I'm probably missing a few, and it's not even the end of June.

We now can search web pages, news sites, blogs, and social media sites. We can search Twitter, we can make decisions, we can search through indexed sites or we can search through the web in real time. We can search, decide, make hunches, compute knowledge, and who knows what else?

Google is still the undisputed king for search engine marketers, but all of these other options present potentially significant niche markets - each part of SEM's long tail. Not all of them yet offer platforms for marketers to take advantage of their traffic, but it's only a matter of time before one or more of them becomes successful enough to do so. The second half of 2009 should be interesting indeed.

As a full-service marketing communications agency, Domus is monitoring carefully the trends and announcements in internet usage, search, and marketing. All online marketers would be well advised to do so also.

Footnote: - After writing the above early this morning, I just found out about yet another entry. It's http://www.search3.com.

Advertising and Brand Loyalty in the Recession

2009-06-22T07:51:00.008-04:00

Advertising Age just posted a couple of interesting articles: Spending Fell (Only) 2.7% in '08. The Real Issue: '09 and Package-Goods Brands Lose Loyalists in Recession. The first one mentioned that although advertising spending dropped only 2.7% in 2008, that was broken down quarterly as follows.

U.S. total measured media spending followed a generally similar trend but with deeper declines: Up 0.6% in first quarter 2008, down 3.7% in the second quarter, down 2.0% in the third quarter -- and then down a seismic 9.2% in the fourth quarter and 14.2% in this year's first quarter, according to TNS.

The first article further reported that Proctor and Gamble, the nation's largest advertiser, dropped their spending by 6.6%, while Walmart Stores, the nation's (newly) fifth largest advertiser, increased their spending 15.9%, including a huge "66.5% increase in measured media spending on their flagship Walmart chain."

Contrast this information with the second article, which reported a study that more than a third of formerly faithful consumers abandoned major brands like Crest, Cheer, Pinesol, Tylenol, etc. Crest and Cheer are P&G brands, which saw brand loyalty decline during the recession at the same time they were dropping their advertising. Interestingly, Tide held onto its loyalists much better than brands like Cheer and Wisk, but also vastly outspent them in advertising.

So, what are the conclusions? Unfortnately, there is not enough data here to make one, but there is certainly enough data to raise questions. And there is certainly enough internal data for the marketers at P&G and others to analyze the relationships. However, if I were a betting person, I would wager that there is a strong correlation between the numbers in the two articles.

Domus, a full service advertising, public relations, and internet marketing firm based in Philadelphia, has a long history of marketing in the consumer packaged goods environment (as well as others). Exploring the relationships between advertising dollars and marketing mix vs. the final sales is a fundamental responsibility in marketers' feedback loop, a responsibility that Domus has effectively executed for many years. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com.

Bing - Microsoft's Integrated Marketing Success

2009-06-19T12:24:00.006-04:00

Everyone has heard of Bing, Microsoft's newly branded and revamped search engine. And everyone is aware of the statistics, that Bing had an impressive first week and its success has continued into its second week. And everyone's still talking about it. (Do a quick search for "Bing" on blog sites, news sites, etc. People are talking about Bing's success, what it means for Google, what it means for Yahoo, etc.)

What I find especially interesting, though, is how well Microsoft has coordinated its marketing efforts to launch Bing. They've had ads running on TV, replayable on the internet. They have a huge PR campaign feeding releases and news bits to the press and other online sites. They have new micro-sites promoting and explaining it. (See DecisionEngine.com and DiscoverBing.com.) They have a Twitter account for Bing as well as a Facebook account. And they haven't stopped. In fact, Steve Ballmer just reaffirmed Microsoft's long-term financial commitment to making Bing a success.

Separate from the (obviously important) fact that Microsoft has lots of money to invest in all aspects of its marketing, the methodology that they've been using shows a very capable, strategically coordinated effort. Kudos to them from a marketing perspective.

Domus, Inc. works not only to come up with new original ideas for our clients, but is also always watching what other marketers are doing to see what works and what does not. Please visit our web site to find out more.

PPC Marketing - Bing Gains, Yahoo Loses

2009-06-18T08:40:00.004-04:00

According to comScore, Bing's growth has continued through the second full week of its launch.

Further analysis using sites like Compete.com and statCounter.com show that Google's search share also increased, which is leading some to say that Microsoft is not progressing in its competition with Google. What most people forget, though, is that Microsoft is not (yet) competing with Google. Companies primarily compete with adversaries who are close to them in market share. For Bing that means Ask.com (fourth place, behind Microsoft) and Yahoo (second place, ahead of Microsoft).

Looking at the traffic numbers being reported, note that both Ask and Yahoo saw declines of about 1% each. So Bing is successfully taking market share from its primary competitors. That's the real story to watch. Whether Bing eventually can make a play to challenge Google for the market lead is a story for another day, but not until (or unless) Bing overtakes Yahoo.

Why should PPC marketers keep following this story? I'll answer that with another question. What is your PPC budget allocation across the major search engines? As Bing's market share changes from week to week, are you nimble enough to make corresponding allocation changes to your budgets? If not, you might be doing a disservice to your brands or your clients' brands.

As a full-service marketing communications, advertising, public relations, and internet marketing agency based in Philadelphia, PA, Domus watches not only its clients' metrics, but metrics of the market as a whole. We pride ourselves in being extremely nimble and agile, reacting effortlessly to changes in the market. For more information, please visit our web site and contact us.

Click Fraud and PPC Marketing

2009-06-16T12:58:00.003-04:00

Microsoft just filed a lawsuit in federal counrt against a group it charged with Click Fraud. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg of what might become a huge problem for the PPC industry, including web site owners and search engine companies.

The main difference between internet advertising and traditional media advertising is that on the internet companies can precisely measure how many people not only actually see the ad but are interested enough to take action (click through). Whereas in traditional media ads are priced based on impressions, on the internet the dominant model is more and more pay-per-click (PPC).

But the very characteristic of the internet that makes user behavior measureable also enables cheating of that metric. And if there is money to be made cheating, there is no way to eliminate growing hordes of cheaters. There are two basic situations that invite click fraud.

Competitor click fraud - In this situation, disreputable marketers (or their agents) use automated programs (or low-cost people) to click through competitors' ads. The intent is to quickly use up the competitors' PPC marketing budgets on false clicks so that the ads won't appear when real users are searching. (This is the situation that Microsoft is currently battling.)
Self-inflation click fraud - Another, as disreputable, form of click fraud is when marketers have ads on their own sites (banner ads, AdSense ads, etc.) and then use automated programs or low-cost people to click through the ads. (I won't provide free links to these thieves, but there are numerous web sites that solicit people to sign up to be clicking "mules".)

This will continue to grow as a problem in the internet marketing world, and there is not much that we can do, other than be vigilant monitoring the metrics coming out of our web sites and placed ads, looking for anything out of the ordinary that might point to fraud. This is one of the activities that Domus provides its interactive customers. For more information, please visit our web site and contact us.

Problem with Facebook Advertising

2009-06-15T12:43:00.005-04:00

Everyone knows how successful Facebook is, and as such, marketers want to reach that audience. However, the basic problem facing Facebook marketers is the same thing that is attracting them - the demographics of the user community.

Facebook users are by far predominantly young, under-35 (Facebook Demographics), and those users pay far less attention to online ads than other demographics. In fact, it's not uncommon to hear high school and college-age people saying that they specifically avoid looking at the section of the screen where the ads are located.

What does this mean for advertisers? Not only should you not expect to see too many hits from Facebook ads (Facebook Ad Impressions and Click-Through Rates), don't assume that a comparable percentage of the "impressions" are actually even seen by the page visitors.

Does this mean that it does not pay to place ads (or apps) on Facebook? No, but be realistic as to what results you will get.

Domus is a full-service advertising agency, PR firm, and interactive marketing agency based in Philadelphia. Please visit our web site to find out more about us.

Internet Presence Management - Two Recent Observations

2009-06-12T09:36:00.004-04:00

At Domus, we strongly encourage our clients to incorporate a strong internet presence management program - both in terms of depth and breadth - as part of their strategic marketing efforts. As such, we also try to stay attuned to what other companies are doing in this area. Two examples recently came to our attention.

Over the last few weeks, we had posted blog entries on two topics in two different industries -- the auto industry (Ford, Chrysler, and GM) and the search engine industry (Does Bing Change Paid Search? and Bing, Yahoo, and Google, plus a couple of follow-ups.) In both cases, after posting the thoughts on this blog site, I participated in a number of industry-specific and topical news and blog sites over the next week, adding my comments and referencing our post. In the case of the auto industry, I even went on to the auto makers' web sites and submitted comments (with link-backs) using their on-line forms.

The results? In the case of the auto industry, from the day the blog entry was posted through the next several weeks, there was not a single hit on our blog site from the entire state of Michigan (headquarters of both the UAW and the US auto makers). On the other hand, in the first three days of posts on the search engine industry, we got 4 hits from Sunnydale, California (Yahoo headquarters), 14 hits from Mountain View, California (Google headquarters), and 99 hits from Redmond, Washington (Microsoft headquarters).

This seems indicative of which industries are paying attention to the online community and which industries are not, doesn't it?

Please visit our web site at http://www.domusinc.com to find out more about us.

Attacks on Google and Microsoft

2009-06-11T10:31:00.006-04:00

It's amazing how many people remain so filled with emotion over big, successful companies. "Google is a bully and deserves to be taken apart." "Microsoft is a bully and deserves to be taken apart." Etc. Both have achieved their ranks because they have consistently provided great tools and solutions to the rest of us. And it's great that they're both battling each other -- in each other's primary turfs. The result can only be better solutions for all of us. (And if that means more profit for both of them, great for them.)

Microsoft is still chasing Google in the Search market with Bing (actually, it is first chasing Yahoo, but make no mistake that after it passes Yahoo it will go after Google). And Google is chasing Microsoft in the areas of email and office applications. The next couple of years should provide a bonanza of great products for us.

In the meantime, those of us who are engaged in paid search and other forms of internet marketing (for ourselves or for our clients) should be paying careful attention to the positionings of each. Budget allocations, demographic targeting, and message creative content all might be affected by the moves these two make.

Domus, Inc. is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. It provides, advertising, public relations, event marketing, internet presence management, strategic consulting, and other services to its clients. Visit our web site and contact us for more information.

Why Would Google Ding Bing?

2009-06-10T00:23:00.004-04:00

Google is by far the dominant search engine. Both numbers two and three (Yahoo and Microsoft) have much smaller shares of the market than Google. So why would Google pay any attention at this point to Microsot? Why would it "ding Bing"? (See Google's Schmidt dings Bing and Bing and Google Get Testy for more.) Classic marketing principles suggest that a dominant market leader should not publicly attack its competitors, even its number two competitor. (For example, you don't see Coke spending lots of money comparing themselves to Pepsi.)

On the other hand, I'm sure Microsoft loves the fact that Google employees and executives are talking about Bing. It just gives Bing free publicity, helping it to grow more. Whether or not Bing can give a real challenge to Google at some point in the future is a question no one can answer right now. However, the company to be worried is Yahoo. With all of the continued attention, Microsoft has a good shot at overtaking Yahoo.

In fact, I predict it will happen before the end of 2009.

Domus, Inc. is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia. At Domus, we never lose site of classic marketing principles as we strategize how to incorporate the realities of today's world and technologies into marketing plans for our clients. Looking for a dynamic agency to help you leap past your competition? Visit our web site and then contact us.

Honesty in Marketing

2009-06-09T07:02:00.004-04:00

"Honesty is the best policy" is a lesson learned very early in our life and often taught to us by our parents. And on many occasions I have found that this really is true and an incredibly worthwhile approach.

In my opinion, advertising agencies for the most part have a problem with this. Now, as an ad professional, I am certainly not calling myself or my colleagues liars. But then there is the dreaded posturing - the long conversations, the rationalization and the spin. Why? Sometimes because we screwed up or sometimes we are just trying to get our way. From my experience, though, all that does is waste a whole lot of time and make everyone look like idiots.

Domus' client relationships defy industry average for length of time with us. This is a direct result of our culture of treating our clients and vendors like we would want to be treated - with hbonesty and integrity. We all make mistakes, but early and honest conversations help minimize potential problem and build a level of trust. No one is superhuman, but we must all be passionate about what we do and remain true to our principles, starting with honesty.

Bing, Yahoo, Google? A Few New Thoughts...

2009-06-08T00:28:00.005-04:00

First there was the StatCounter story showing Bing surpassing Yahoo! Next, ComScore, HitWise, Nielsen, and CNet all reported that maybe Yahoo! was still beating Bing. (E.g., see: Daily Tech and CNet.)

So what is the reality and what does it mean for marketers? Well, here are a few thoughts:

It's amazing how much emotion seems to permeate the online user community when Microsoft is in the news. No other company seems to generate so much passion, whether positive or negative. Serious marketers need to filter all of that out and make decisions based just on the facts.
As a marketer, should it change my strategies, tactics, or processes if Bing is now number two or (one day later) if Yahoo is still number two? I think the answers are simple - strategies remain the same, (internal) processes remain the same, but tactics might shift. Specifically, our strategies still attempt to maximize the effectiveness of SEM budgets, and our processes still continue to analyze our own web sites and related metrics to adjust allocations. So the only thing that changes is potentially the tactics of how much to allocate to which search engine. But the important point is that I should be allocating my budget based on which search engine provides my sites with the best traffic, not which search engine gets good numbers from StatCounter, Hitwise, Nielsen, or anyone else. Those sites should just provide me information about what aspects of my own traffic I should more closely monitor.
With all of this said, anyone who discounts Microsoft in this market (or any other) is seriously underestimating them. Microsoft does not usually come out with the first, and very often its first or second or even third attempt is not the best. But Microsoft is persistent. They didn't become a behemoth by giving up.
Next, what do I think of Bing? So far I like it. I already gravitate to it more than Yahoo, but I still go to Google first. (However, when searching Blogs, I think Google is still far ahead.)
By the way, there's a great experiment on BlindSearch, reported on Mashable.com, where people vote on results from different search engines without knowing which engine delivered the results (to remove prejudices). So far, Bing is beating Yahoo! (but trailing Google). Interesting.

Domus, Inc. is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia with clients throughout the United States. Domus combines classic marketing principles with dynamic and innovative execution, using a unique business service model. Please visit our website at http://www.domusinc.com to find out more.

Does Microsoft Bing change paid search and search engine marketing (SEM)?

2009-06-05T11:27:00.005-04:00

The StatCounter monitoring service just release statistics showing that Microsoft's new search site, Bing might have overtaken Yahoo! as the number two search engine in the U.S. Although it's too early to tell whether or not this is just a new launch blip or a long-term trend, the indications are that the search engine marketing game (paid search in particular) is changing.

Most companies and advertising agencies such as Domus spread their paid search budgets across the major search engines, generally proportioned according to their relative market shares. Now that Bing might be overtaking Yahoo!, agencies and other marketers need to take a close look at their allocations and resulting traffic to see if they should be adjusted.

Domus, Inc. is a full-service marketing communications agency based in Philadelphia with clients throughout the United States.

Getting Organic and Paid Search to Play Well Together

2009-06-02T13:05:00.008-04:00

In the current economic conditions, marketing budgets must be leveraged in the most effective and streamlined way possible. Although internet marketing budgets have continued to grow as traditional marketing has experienced cuts, this need for increased effectiveness is still applicable to online initiatives.

Search engine marketing (SEM), composed of SEO (search engine optimization) and paid search/pay-per-click (PPC), amongst other tactics, is one of the strongest and most effective ways of reaching a targeted, qualified audience. Properly executed SEO initiatives can, over weeks and months, improve a site’s rank for strategically important keywords. However, paid search campaigns can be used to increase a site’s visibility for keywords that SEO has not had enough time to affect and for keywords that SEO would be hard-pressed to be successful for, such as broad industry terms and competitor names.

When deciding which keywords to target via paid search and/or SEO, it is important to understand the site in question’s current organic rank for each keyword. While a paid search campaign can consist of any keywords that are relevant to the site and the brand, it is important not to cannibalize your SEO efforts. Brand-specific keywords will usually yield high results within the organic returns, so it may not be necessary to bid on those words in pay-per-click campaigns. Instead, budgets can be better allocated to more generic/general keywords, which usually require a higher cost per click (CPC). Being able to bid more on the generic/general terms will increase ranks, build brand awareness and capture a new audience that may not have been aware of the brand. Additionally, both SEO and paid search can be used to target long-tail keywords, highly specific phrases usually comprised of multiple terms, though PPC will generate more immediate visibility.

In short, know your current strengths within organic returns, and focus paid search campaigns on the keywords whose ranks could be improved upon. For more information regarding internet marketing and traditional marketing, visit Domus’ website.

Ford, Star Trek, and Domus

2009-05-26T08:25:00.004-04:00

One of the great things about working inside of a dynamic marketing agency like Domus is experiencing all of the ideas that people come up with – for the agency’s clients, for the agency itself, and for other companies, whether or not they will one day become clients. No idea is too far out in left field to be considered, debated, and developed. At a minimum, it keeps the energy level high and people’s minds sharp; at best it enables business- growing or even business-saving strategies and tactics to germinate.

But what does this have to do with Ford and Star Trek (the other two thirds of this blog post’s title)? Well, two things that have been in the news over the last couple of weeks had a connection that got the brain juices flowing: the new Star Trek movie and the notices by Chrysler and GM that they were terminating relationships with thousands of car dealers in the U.S.

I know this is stretching a little, but that’s how the brain sometimes works. One line in the narrated credits of the movie was “…to boldly go where no one has gone before.” That got some of us thinking. These are extraordinary times, which can benefit from extraordinary (bold) thinking. So we thought… We thought of all of the pain that these thousands of dealers are being forced to go through; we thought of all of the press (generally negative) that Chrysler and GM are getting; and we thought, “Who could gain? And how?” That, in turn, brought us to Ford, which brings me to the following open letter to William Clay Ford, Jr., Executive Chairman of the Ford Motor Company.

Dear Mr. Ford,

Here’s a marketing idea that could do wonders for Ford, but you need to strike now while the iron’s hot.

Offer as many as possible of the discontinued Chrysler and GM dealerships the opportunity to become Ford dealerships, helping them financially to make the switch.

Imagine the possibilities. Many of these dealers have been loyal to their associated auto manufacturer for decades. Many are still profitable. All are eager to stay in business. And all have something to prove. Imagine each of them partnering with you to prove to GM and Chrysler that they are not only viable, but that they are the best, most profitable, and most loyal dealers in the world. Imagine them being loyal to Ford.

And don’t forget the local, national, and international publicity---all free—that will result from a bold move like this. How much does Ford spend monthly on advertising? How much money is it worth to have every major newspaper, radio station, TV station, and blog site in the country delivering stories about how Ford saved all of these dealerships and all of the families who work for them? What fraction of that money would be necessary to help convert these dealerships? And how many tens of thousands of cars will Ford sell that otherwise would have gone to GM or Chrysler? (At a minimum, think of 30-50 people who work at each of a thousand dealers. Then include their families and friends. Then their customer contacts…)

Mr. Ford, now’s the time to boldly go where no one has gone before. Strike while the iron’s hot. And, if you want more developed thoughts along these lines, please contact us. Domus is a full-service marketing agency based in Philadelphia. We have dynamic, creative people who are always thinking outside of the box, regardless of where it takes us—advertising, public relations, internet marketing, strategic consulting, and more.

Sincerely,

Marc
Domus Strategic Consulting

P.S., I write this not just as a marketing consultant, but also as a customer—I just bought a 2009 Ford Fusion. So, my loyalties are with you. Live long and prosper!

Just-In-Time Resource Management for Ad Agencies

2009-05-19T10:38:00.005-04:00

"Just-in-Time" (JIT) is an inventory strategy designed to improve the ROI of a business by reducing inventory and its associated costs. The key to inventory reduction through JIT is the quick communication of stock consumption, which signals the need for new stock to be generated, which leads to savings in both space and costs. Materials are purchased and units are produced only as needed to meet actual customer demand. The philosophy of JIT is simple - sitting inventory is wasteful and unproductive. JIT is all about having the right material, at the right time, at the right place, and in the exact amount, when needed and only when needed.

Now apply this paradigm to service industries in general and the advertising industry in particular. The analogous "inventory", though, is no longer made up of widgets. Rather, it is people resources - specifically, people skilled in creative, communicative, managerial, technical, and other aspects of marketing communications.

So, for an advertising agency to most effectively service its customers without passing through wasteful overhead, the agency (or PR firm) must have its "inventory" of skilled professionals available at the moment that its clients need them and only at those moments. Moreover, since each situation is different, the skill sets required in each situation will necessarily differ, implying differing available "inventory."

In other words, an agency needs an extensive network of skilled professionals and specialists from which the right people can be picked for each project. To ensure quality and consistency, the agency will always need a core team of in-house staff to manage these dynamic teams and maintain effective communications with clients.

As the landscape of public relations, advertising, and marketing communications in general continues to change more and more rapidly, resource management models based on this concept are becoming critical to the success and even survival of agencies. Domus, a full-service Philadelphia advertising and marketing communications agency, has been an innovator and champion of JIT since its inception 16 years ago. Our clients have been reaping the benefits ever since. Our business model and ability to engage experts and resources across any category uniquely enable us to deliver strengths in just about any area that our clients might be looking for. Visit our website and give us a call to talk about our model further.

Integrated Marketing Communications

2009-05-12T08:54:00.013-04:00

Building Blocks of Effective Marketing

If you think about it, in marketing, we can boil down all of our activities to four simple directives.

Define your brand platform, your marketing positioning.
Establish, maintain, and build your credibility.
Reaffirm, reinforce, and accelerate the distribution of your advertising message(s) to your target audience(s).
Motivate, inspire, and drive your market to action.

Each of these must build on the other, and must follow in this order. Without a clearly defined brand position, all subsequent communications cannot, by definition, be focused. Without a measure of brand and corporate credibility, the market might hear your message but won't believe it. And without a wide enough distribution of your message and brand recognition, promotional and other efforts to drive your existing and potential customers to action (buying decisions) will be stymied.

Then, once we refocus our activities with these directives in mind, we can look at all of the marketing building blocks that are available to us, and combine them strategically to maximize the results of our efforts.

At Domus, a Philadelphia full-service advertising and marketing communications agency, we use these building blocks, along with other strategic analyses, to always keep our clients marketing efforts focused and effective.

Inbound Link Propagation for SEO

2009-05-05T11:42:00.007-04:00

Inbound links to a website have a substantial impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and a site’s organic ranks for strategically important keywords. The volume of links and their characteristics, such as having relevant keywords in the linked text, can be manipulated by an effective linkage outreach and management program.

However, external sites, even those belonging to business partners, may be resistant to driving visitors away from their own site. So, how does one effectively increase the quantity and quality of inbound links without straining business relationships or wasting a lot of time barking up wrong trees?

Effective tools for increasing linkage may already exist within current marketing campaigns and business materials. A common SEO and linkage practice is to include links and URLs within press releases and other public relations materials so that, when they get picked up by media and news outlets, they link to and drive traffic back to a site. However, this paradigm can be extended to other content which is not normally taken into account.

Medium to large business that have business partners often find their site copy, collateral and trade information picked up and repurposed on others’ sites. While this by itself ensures that messaging remains consistent, it can be leveraged and even encouraged in order to increase inbound linkage and SEO. Including intra-site, inline links in site copy and other materials will increase the likelihood of partner sites linking back without straining relationships or wasting much time. Additionally, businesses can actively encourage partners to use their materials, which cuts development time and costs for these partners, through outreach and trade sections of their website. Practices such as these can increase inbound links and make a company look like a good business partner.

As SEO is a continually evolving field of marketing, at Domus we are always refining our strategies in order to maximize the quantity and quality of links back to our clients' sites.

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Your Marketing Staff Has Expanded

2009-04-28T21:44:00.006-04:00

It now includes your customers

One of the biggest changes that the internet has brought about in impacting your brand is that your customers now have a meaningful say in creating impressions in the marketplace. Consider that in a recent quantitative study by the Society for New Communications, 74% of buyers reported that their decision to choose brands was based on user-generated content on the internet about experiences with those brands. Branding is no longer a one-way street. In order to manage a brand’s image, marketers need to monitor their presence on the internet and engage with their customers.

The power of the internet is the real-time feedback marketers receive on the brand. But this power is lost (or even detrimental) if marketers are unaware of their brands’ presence online or if they take no action to defend or build their brands accordingly. Many marketers are overwhelmed by the daunting task of monitoring and building their brands online; however, a systematized approach built on traditional customer servicing best practices will reap a tremendous return on investment in repeat purchases as well as brand referrals.

The internet may be the newest way to brand, but it is based on the oldest and most effective form of advertising, word of mouth.

At Domus, a full-service Philadelphia advertising agency, we help our clients manage their internet presence using a combination of integrated strategies that together we call our "C.O.R.E." approach. Visit our web site and then contact us if you would like to find out more.

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Arrogant Marketing

2009-04-22T22:24:00.008-04:00

How Not to “Be the Client”

Over the last couple of months I had two interactions with marketers that left me uncomfortable and a little annoyed. But I didn’t articulate anything until reading Lisa’s previous post here about “Being the Client,” which got me thinking about how these two marketers definitely did not consider being me (the client).

The two interactions were almost identical. In both cases I received a communication through the mail from a company. The first was the car company who made the automobile I just bought and the second was from my mobile phone carrier. Both sent me something that started with one big, bold word:

One congratulated me for buying their new car and the other congratulated me because they designated me a VIP customer. My reaction to both was the same, “Why are you congratulating me? You should be thanking me for buying your product or service (and I congratulating you on being selected).” In fact, I was being more than nit-picky over their choices of a word—I was annoyed at their arrogant perceptions of our relative positions in the business transactions. They might have thought that they were providing good customer service, but they failed because they didn’t put themselves in my shoes before formulating their marketing messages.

Such a simple concept—“Be the Client”—but such a powerful foundation for any marketer. That’s one of the reasons why Domus has been so successful with its clients. Domus account managers never lose sight of their clients’ perspectives. And they make sure that their clients never lose sight of their customers’ perspectives.

As an addendum, here's a follow-up to this blog: Arrogant Marketing, Part 2.

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Keep your Clients' Business

2009-04-21T11:11:00.007-04:00

by "Being the Client"

A few years back, I had the distinct pleasure of actually being the client as VP of Marketing for a flooring manufacturer. During that time, my philosophy completely changed with regard to “client service.” After a good ten years of training on the agency side, I felt like I knew the client perspective pretty well and this was going to be an easy transition. Yeah...no. The pressures, the priorities, the issues were all very different than the way I felt them on the agency side. I found myself in meetings where my agency would present something that I would reject. On their face I saw “she does not get it” and in my heart I felt “they do not know the whole story."

A big part of our philosophy at Domus is the notion of “be the client.” Most of our senior managers have been clients or are trained to think like clients. That does not mean we do not provide an outside objective opinion or be incredibly creative—that's the job we are hired to do. But it does mean that we should think beyond the task at hand or the role we play and really understand the business and the day-to-day pressures around marketing a brand in this environment. This philosophy is as simple as asking ourselves, "Would I do this if I were making all of the final decisions?" (Well - maybe a simple question and a really well thought out strategic planning process.)

As a full-service advertising, PR, and internet marketing agency, we have maintained client relationships that long defy the industry average for the account lifecycle. We believe it is because we take this job as seriously as our clients do.

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Marketing in a Down Economy

2009-04-14T13:33:00.009-04:00

The Fallacy of Lowering the Bar

In most aspects of life, people conform to a standard pattern vis-à-vis expectations laid out before them. The vast majority of people will meet those expectations (or a little under or over), a smaller percentage will fall short, and another similarly small percentage will exceed them. In the below graph, the section on the right represents the roughly 20% of your employees who regularly exceed expectations and deliver 80% of your results (the Pareto principle).

What many people don't realize, though, is that as those expectations are raised or lowered, the percentages of people meeting, exceeding, and underachieving remain relatively constant. (Your super-achievers will still find a way to exceed expectations.) Of course, there comes a point where expectations are so high that it becomes impossible for people to meet them, and there is a point where expectations are so low that everyone meets them. However, within a reasonable range, people will consistently rise or fall to the occasions as presented to them. Therefore, whether at a societal or business level, in the aggregate overall performance will increase when expectations are maintained at a high level.

So how does this apply to marketing in a slumping economy? Simply put, revisit all of your marketing goals, being very wary about lowering them. Insist that people rise to the occasion to meet the challenges in front of them. Aggressively pursue those sales opportunities that have been sitting unaddressed. Rather than cutting back, increase your advertising effectiveness and public relations impact. Work smarter AND harder.

Domus, Inc., a full-service marketing communications agency in Philadelphia, is doing this both internally and externally. With its clients, Domus is helping them extend their reach with reduced budgets and reluctant markets. Internally, Domus is aggressively pursuing new business, and as a result is right now in the middle of an expansion. This compares to many advertising agencies, who are currently struggling to prove their worth, both because of this recession and because of the overall changing marketing environment. Domus is expanding right now because it is maintaining high expectations for itself and also because it has maintained its promise to its clients that "whatever their expectations, raise them."

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Internet Presence Management

2009-04-07T21:55:00.007-04:00

In my last post I mentioned “Internet Presence Management” as a tool to help increase advertising effectiveness, and as an overall component of an effective marketing plan. To summarize the gist of that post, let’s start with a classic marketing principle: “One of the worst things you can do is advertise well a bad product/service.” The same applies to a product or service that consumers believe to be bad, whether or not it actually is. Next, it’s important to understand that the internet today is an open forum where consumers can air all of their thoughts (often complaints), which in turn become the basis of other prospective consumers’ opinions. Therefore, paying no attention to the “buzz” on the internet leaves your credibility out of your control, which in turn can damage your marketing efforts. To counter this, Internet Presence Management is an overall process by which marketers engage with consumers on the internet to ensure fair and balanced treatments of themselves and their products.

So what makes up “Internet Presence Management?” In general terms, it is a process whereby marketers do the following.

Monitor online communities, blogs, review sites, forums, etc. to find out what people are saying about you, your products, your competition, and the market in general.
Participate in those forums, responding honestly and respectfully to raised issues. (And respond in deeds as well as words.)
Lead conversations (in those communities and your own) by initiating discussions, posting opinions and other thoughts. Ask for input and continue the cycle.
Encourage your consumer base to join in the conversation with you.
Use the above interactions to truly influence your business practices.
Publicize what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and why you’re doing it.

In essence, it is a process whereby you help the truthful information about you to be widely disseminated. This improves your overall credibility in the market, which in turn enables your advertising programs to be effective.

There are many fine details involved with the above general points, and skilled marketers and advertising agencies, such as the Philadelphia-based Domus ad agency, have honed them into effective programs.

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