Posts Tagged ‘Strategy / Tactics
Don’t just flirt! Follow through!
Caught a great post off of The Viral Garden.
Social Media ain’t about one-night stands, it’s about relationships
This is something that my organization has problems with as well. Every campaign, every effort needs to be part of a whole branding initiative. However, too often, we come across an awesome idea. Implement it. Move onto the next awesome idea. The end result: Not realizing the potential of any one campaign. Which is a shame…
This post on The Viral Garden gave a few example of companies who engaged the consumers via social media, but did not follow through. And the lesson was it’s better to ignore the consumers than to flirt with them THEN ignore them… Of course, the ideal is to not ignore them at all 
Short term gains, long term losses…
I was talking with a friend the other day, and we were talking about the dollar menus that have popped up. Good idea? Bad idea?
I think ultimately this is something that restaurants need on the short run, because they just need people coming in for food. However, in the long run, it’s probably a bad idea for the brand. Mini-burgers, the ones I’ve tried, are definitely mediocre at best. They are only a fraction of the taste and deliciousness of the full-size versions. Yet, they now form my opinion of those particular restaurants.
Now, dollar-menus have its place in a bad economy… but when the economy turns around, it’d harder for people to buy back into the message of you serving a fine burger when their experience had been mediocre in the past.
Also, dollar-menus are by definition a value play. It lost the oh, this is a yummy burger message. Would you be grooming people to be loyal to the dollar-menus rather than your burgers? What does that mean for your brand long-term?
Now, of course, you could argue that fast food restaurants are about value… but it wasn’t that long ago where Hardees were trying to differentiate themselves based on the tastiness of their burger. In fact, they still have that as their message on their commercials. Wendy’s still try to play a fresh message. Besides, these value menus are not limited to fast food restaurants.. they are popping up everywhere, including places that probably should not have them!
And it’s certainly not a phenomenon that’s limited tot he restaurant industry… brands everywhere is trying to balance the value equation in this economy… and too many are making decisions that are potentially too short-sighted…
For your reading pleasure, a recent article on USA Today about hunting for a dollar menu bargin… Article Link
Marketing in a post-consumer era
The economy has changed. Shopper behaviors have changed… etc.
And marketers everywhere are trying to come up with the products or the campaigns that are still relevant in today’s environment. And let me tell you, it hasn’t been easy.
Then, I came across this post on one of the blogs I follow: Logic+Emotion. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this one definitely sums up what had changed and what big picture we need to keep in mind as marketers going forward.
Jeannie Chan is a Brand Manager for a Fortune 500 consumer goods company. She considers herself a marketer, a traveler, and a foodie. Jeanne lives in NYC. 
