The GM CEO Blog

A corporate blog gives voice and agency to a company, and CEO’s should take advantage of this opportunity to communicate directly with customers and the public. A CEO should share a love and enthusiasm for their company and its product or service. They should not be CEO of the company if they don’t feel that love. With GM, of course, it is easy. Beautiful cars, colorful history, and of course, appealing advertising.

Vice Chairman Bob Lutz gives his thoughts on the blog (see his blog) and over time it has become apparent Bob loves cars.

A CEO like Bob now has voice without being lackey to media conglomerates and the sickly procession of charlatans who work in them. I still think about the now infamous incident between the NY Times conglomerate and GM. The NYT published a vicious Tom Freidman editorial about GM that it later admitted went over the top. GM sent them a reply and asked it to be printed on the op-ed page but kept getting the run around by the Times editors. (See GM Blog )

GM complied with demand after demand to water down their reply until the editors finally demanded that GM remove the word rubbish. The Times said it was a devil word inappropriate for a paper of their stature. At that point, GM posted the unsightly email thread it had been keeping with the Times on its Fastlane blog.

It was so outrageous that it spread across the Internet like the fire of righteous retribution. Many were appalled by the Times hypocritical censorship and arrogance. The Columbia School of Journalism wrote that the Times was patently unfair (Columbia Journalism Critique).

The days of newspapers playing God because they were the only game in town are over. An open discussion about GM occurred despite the Times trying to suppress and censor it. As a postscript, when you get wildfire like this, the law of many eyes kicks in and some eyes found editorials posted in the Times past that contained the word rubbish.

I am saddened by the Chapter 11 status of GM. The NYT is on the same path. A consortium of colleges may save them (see Freepress) but the Internet has destroyed their revenue structure.

Smirnoff: Asymmetric Marketing with Buzz

This week finds me in a gangsta kinda mood. So it was with Smirnoff when they commissioned this video gone viral: Smirnoff Tea Partay

Johnson (2009, p. 26) reports that Bartle Bogle Hegarty produced and released this made-for-YouTube video in August 2006. She has it ranked 6th in viral videos with 4.8M hits. She quotes Mel Peters, creative director at Citrus, about Smirnoff’s viral marketing:

“This is a great example of how the advocacy of followers can lead to an ongoing presence for a brand in this crowded space. That it continues to engage with the YouTube community is a testament to its success! “

Hawkins, et al (2007, p. 249) note that viral marketing is an online strategy to generate buzz and word of mouth (WOM). Buzz is an idea contagion that “[creates] an exponential expansion of word of mouth.” It is low cost but they go on to say (p. 248) that such strategies must be used with care so no miscommunications diminish the brand. Taleb (2007, p. 220) would say idea contagions are fractal as well as exponential.



Fractal worlds are winner take all. They follow a scalable power rule, something like 10% of the videos capture 90% of the traffic, and 10% of that top 10% capture 90% of that 90%. In such a world the top 1% owns a lot, 81% in my example. For WOM marketing online, this means you front $600K to produce a video but most times it doesn’t hit.

Chandler (2007, pp 27-9) also says viral marketing is fractal but he is more optimistic. With the advent of social media “the potential for viral, word-of-mouth marketing becomes enormous.” Not everyone is so optimistic.

Freedman (2006, p 81) quotes Dr. Patti Williams at Wharton that “the evidence you can go from online talk about a product to sales is really limited.” An example used is the movie Snakes on a Plane that had a lot of buzz online but a lot of fizz at the box office. To be fair, movies are one of the few categories where traditional advertising is more effective than word of mouth anyway, according to Hawkins, et al (p. 242).

Although not an optimist, Taleb says that living today requires a lot more imagination because it is a world dominated by extremes and the unknown. He advises us to seize asymmetric opportunities like this where you make a series of small bets that you will lose for the occasional big payoff. This is the most effective strategy in the world we are rapidly becoming.

Hawkins, et al (p. 246) say that other driving forces for word of mouth strategies are fragmenting markets and consumer skepticism. With all this said, I think buzz is no baseless fad. Unprecedented uncertainty invites unprecedented imagination. If you try to create buzz and keep persisting, every once in a while you become a playa like Smirnoff. In the meantime, you need to manage expectations.

References
Chandler, Doug (May 2007) Web 2.0: Buzzword or Bonanza. Electrical Wholesaling. Retrieved on April 17, 2009 from EBSCOHOST

Freedman, David H. (Dec2006). Everyone is chasing Internet buzz. But be careful. Online hype doesn't always deliver. Inc. Retrieved on April 17, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.
Hawkins, Del, David Mothersbaugh and Roger Best (2007). Consumer Behavior. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Johnson, Celia (March 6, 2009). 10 of the Best. BANDT-COM.AU. Retrieved on April 18, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.

Taleb, Nassim Nickolas (2007). The Black Swan. Random House.

The Voices of Social Media

A blog has one voice with a chorus of commentary. You post your message and others comment on it in separate replies but no one can change your original message. Yours is the voice initiating the tone and tenor of the communications. Your message is the focus and cannot be altered except by you.
On the other hand, a wiki has a community voice. Someone posts a message and, unlike with a blog, everyone can edit that post. Version control is usually present so previous versions can be retrieved and even differences between versions highlighted.

At my job, we are using blogs, and wikis for project management work; in our case web services projects. In fact, web services is being moved under public affairs in most organizations, considered more of a communication function than a technology support function.

Design reviews by client offices are done in blogs since we have superior knowledge of computer and communications systems. The design has one voice but the ability to comment by interested parties. Internally, we prepare a design using wikis. Everyone within my office has superior knowledge in different facets of a system to contribute to an overall proposal. When we have a proposed design we transfer the communication to a blog as a design review by external offices.

These approaches get buy in from both the internal staff and our external clients more so than traditional methods. The internal public experiences a more direct hand in preparing the design. The external public can see other s’ comments in parallel. Stultz (2009, p 11) says that

“But the blog rules for now. Solid relationships can be built by you and by corporations (again, you) based on honest, open dialog with superior content.”

Secondly, we are using txt messaging gateways as one method of broadcast communications for continuity of operations. Cell phone carriers, such as Sprint or Nextel, provide SMS gateways for the transfer of text messages from computer to mobile phone. These gateways are the foundation of the mechanics for an organization, be it an aggregator mobile marketing service or a commercial business entity, or government agency to implement a mobile communications broadcast. Wikipedia has a list of mobile phone SMS gateways by carrier (see SMS Gateways in Wikipedia).

All email messages broadcast as text messages to mobile devices go through such gateways to both verify permissions you set on receiving and allowing the messages through. As an example, assuming my phone number is 800-555-1213 and my carrier is Sprint, the Sprint SMS gateway is messaging.sprintpcs.com according to Wikipedia. So I could create an email on my computer that would be sent to the gateway by using the following as the To: address

8005551212@messaging.sprintpcs.com

The messaging gateway (messaging.sprintpcs.com) converts my email to mobile txt and in turn forwards it to the SMS client on my cell phone. This can also be done programmatically with a function like the one below to loop through a list of recipient mail addresses. In addition, the from-name can be changed to an email alias relevant to the receiver, so they don't trash the email right away as spam.

Duncan (2005, p 392), says an important aspect of mobile marketing is that “messages can be targeted not only by individual cellular phone number but also by time and location of targeted customers.” Critical here is permission of receiver. In their article Driving Sales through Mobile Marketing, authors, Say and Southwell (2006, p262) imply that mobile direct marketing, especially text messaging can be ruinous because “the mobile phone is almost certainly the most personal electronic consumer device.” In support of this warning, another researcher Alan Chappell (2006, p1) cites a study that found 80% of cell phone users would consider ‘mobile spam’ a reason for switching carriers. Direct Marketers who fall short with mobile etiquette risk bad public relations, hardship in the mobile media, and Say and Southwell believe that ultimately it can degrade a brand (p 262).

They must be in control. Stultz notes (2009, p 13) “Marketers are encouraging consumers to become part of the conversation; in fact, to control it. “ This is true for both social media and mobile communications technologies.

References
Duncan, Tom (2005). Principles of Advertising and IMC. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Chappell, A (March 19, 2006). Mobile Marketing & Opt-In (Chapell & Associates). Retrieved on March 7, 2009 at http://mmaglobal.com/modules/article/view.article.php/352

Say, P. and J. Southwell (Jan-Mar 2006). Beep, beep, beep, beep, that’ll be the bank then – Driving sales through mobile marketing. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice.

Stultz, Larry (2009). Non-Traditional Media and Interactive Marketing.

Ethos, Themes and Values

Understanding our target audiences and targeting content to them is a fundamental aspect of web design. Scott (2007, p 33) advises us to identify and articulate each target audience and develop content specific to each. He recommends creating a persona for each target audience.

What information do we need for content to appeal to each persona? In his book, Culture and Persoanlity, Wallace (1963, p 101) recommends knowing the themes, values and ethos of a group to prepare appealing content. A theme is how the group sees the world. Wallace suggests a good way of discerning this is a review of the literature or theatre the group patronizes. What books or movies are their favorites?

He catalogs several themes in literature:

• The “western” – hard to find good people must fight tirelessly to bring order to a chaotic world


• The “detective” – idealists disillusioned with the existing order do the right thing for the wrong reason


• The “mystery” – clever and logical heroes politely work to maintain what they believe is a righteous order


• The “action” – well intentioned brutality


• The “drama” – heroes not concerned with social welfare, seek gratification of private desire.
  

Ethos is a style or form of emotional experience. Ruth Benedict, the grand dame of the cultural and social study of groups and a professor to Margaret Mead (see Wallace, 1963, p 103), distinguishes two type of ethos for groups: Dionysian and Apollonian. The desire for the Dionysian is personal experience, while that of the Apollonian is moderation.

Finally values (p 101) are concepts or mental images that motivate a group to action. They are either positive or negative, moving a group towards or repelling them away from some idea. Health, membership in a prestigious group, leisure, and affluence are examples of such motivational food pellets.

This type of information should be stored in our customer database in addition to the raw data on demographics, and so on to help formulate a meaningful appeal after we have segmented target audiences.

References
Scott, D (2007). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Wiley.

Spiller, L. and M. Baier (2005). Contemporary Direct Marketing. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Wallace, AFC (1963). Culture and Personality. Random House.

Law of Requisite Variety

With Cool Hand Luke (see imdb ), “Rabbit gonna run” results in a “Fay-yah to communicate” lecture and thumping from the warden. With web sites, just the opposite: a failure to communicate results in a rabbit gonna run.

In his book "The Social Psychology of Organizing", Karl Weick offers an intriguing insight about communications generally that I think applies with force in Websites where we can’t see the rabbits come and go, except by their abstruse reflections in our web logs. He defines the Law of Requisite Variety:

“the variety in a system [such as a Website] must be at least as great as the environmental variety against which it is attempting to influence.“

For Web site designers, our site must have appeal to our different publics. Weick gives as an example a photographer, and I give a Website Design corollary:

• A photographer has 5 subjects each at a different distance from the camera.
• A IMC Website designer has 5 different psychographic segments to reach with the site
  --
• The photographers camera must have 5 distinct setting to capture all subjects with uniform density and clarity
• The Website designer must have content for 5 distinct personas and apt navigation for each (as an example see WVU Home Page)
  --
• If the camera has fewer than 5 settings it lacks requisite variety and will not register with sufficient detail to depict with accuracy
• If the Website does not have content of relevant interest to the 5 personas some of the visitors will leave in frustration.
  

Paul Gillin (see Paul's blog) in his excellent book The New Influencers describes an approach for addressing a diverse audience such as a University Website.

My conclusion, the home page is an important traffic cop to direct personas to their appropriate content.

We also need to be a Web boss like at right, because the customer, well he's got rabbit in his blood, and he'll run.

Is There a Smoking Hole in the Future of TV and Print?

I think yes, powerful vicious circles are converging around the traditional TV and Print media formats. They must face a new revenue reality. They must face accountability. Their God Complex days are over.

The interdependent nature of the variables in vicious circles means that different circles can become coincident and reinforcing, creating a perfect storm. TV and Print will be pulled through a vortex much more powerful than radio, and after which their look and capacity will be very much different than today.

An unspeakable degree of financial revenue destruction has been initiated. Advertising, especially classified advertising is shifting to the Internet, to the new media. Classified advertising had been the financial spine of newspapers, cross-subsidizing reporting, political commentary and editorial activities (See Free Press Article). It represented 30% (See Newspapers Suffer) to 37% of newspaper revenues (See Media Manager).

Accountability. That dread word. On the corporate side of this table, marketing has acted like a junkie in the boardrooms, tin-cupping for money without demonstrable value. On the other hand, the new media can provide the metrics that management wants.

It is plainly clear from current events that revenue base destruction, and accountability will change the business model in the traditional media of TV and Print. Their days of royal power are numbered, and they will become more of a first among equals in the world shaped by the new media.

For a more complete analysis see Redmond Review Smoking Hole.

Sa Ne Faire Rien? Public Relations and the New Media.

The old image of public relations as bar flies with delusions of being puppet masters came a cropper. The public became cynical of public relations as in CYNICAL. The nature of public relations is coming full circle, according to David Scott (New Rules of Marketing and PR), Paul Gillan (The New Influencers), and Lauri Wilson and Joe Ogden (Strategic Communication Planning).

Wilson and Ogden trace the creation of public relations as strategic advisor to the CEO in the early 20th century and its quick fall to a staff function considered a luxury. Inger Stole tells us the dark purpose of public relations, after the tragic fall and before its current resurrection, was to “resist and co-opt the consumer movement” and buttress slick advertising (see University of Illinois Books).

Innovative forces have been unleashed by the new social media and they are working utter destruction on the old PR. The value of the new public relations is honest and open content that is readily available to searchers when they need it. “Content drives action.”


The Public Relations Society of America defines public relations in its Official Statement on Public Relations(see PRSA Mission), and it is consistent with the new PR described by Scott. The essence is that it fosters mutually beneficial relationships.

Redmond Review has a complete analysis at Redmond Review Sanna Fairy Anne

References
Wilson, Laurie and Ogden, Joseph (2004). Strategic Communications Planning, 4th Ed. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

New Media Disintermediation of Traditional Business Structures

The Boston Consulting Group, in their Harvard Business School publication examines the impact new information technology will have on business strategy. The authors of the work, Evans and Wurster (2000, p 72) describe the disintermediation wrought by the new media as a “technology [that] allows for the richness/reach curve to be displaced, allowing new players to offer greater reach and greater richness simultaneously.” This results not in a re-segmentation of the old business but in an industry transformation to a new model.

This is happening with newspapers, a dismantling and reformulation is underway driven by the relentless economics of the new media. In their consulting work with Newspapers, The Boston Consulting Group (p 42) has observed that “Newspapers exist and can survive and profit as intermediaries between journalists and readers, because of the economies of scale in the printing press.” Journalists had no direct access to readers.

Newspapers are vulnerable to new media at critical points in their value chain. The most critical being classified advertising, which is a natural for on-line publication. As Evans and Wurster note (p 42) “classifieds account for about 40% of a newspapers revenues and only 10% of its costs…. If classifieds are lost, most newspapers would become financially unsustainable.”

This is the impact of new media on the existing business world. When its existing value chain is unraveled, companies in general, but newspapers specifically for this post can no longer subsidize poor performance of editorial or political commentary by combining them with other links in the chain. The profitable links of old that at one time were capable of carrying dead weight are now under relentless profit pressure.

Reference
Evans, Phillip and Thomas Wurster (2000). Blown to Bits. The Boston Consulting Group. Harvard Business School Press.

A Pirelli Short Film

Pirelli has always had attractively pioneering marketing. It is characterized by facility and skill among tire companies, front running many with flamboyant calendars (see Pirelli Calendar ). Adopting short films is not such a leap for them and The Call is certainly more interesting than watching the Michelin Marshmallow Man try to get his Marshmallow Dog.

Pfanner (2006, pp1-2) gives some insight into this campaign. It was the first time Pirelli worked with Leo Burnett and behind it was concerns with the declining effectiveness of traditional media advertising. Traditional advertising seems to be dissolving before our eyes. It is no longer the altruistic industry that gives us free TV, but now has an appearance more like a monolithic parasite draining money from its corporate host.

Pirelli backed its bet on short film marketing with 60% of its marketing budget according to Pfanner (2006, p1). Why?

"Many advertisers are worried that traditional ways of reaching consumers, including the 30-second television spot, are losing their power to persuade."

Their tag-line “Power is nothing without control” is catchy. However, to build long-term relationships, the slogans should be consistent with the customer’s experience with the company. Duncan (2005, p 15) says that “ interactions with customers send some of the most impactful messages that customers receive about a brand.”

Curiously, Pirelli has had some scandal related to its level of concern for safety. Lawsuits allege that it had foreknowledge of safety problems but did not take action. Many complain, see AllAutoWorld .

All in all, though, the campaign was a hit. They even have a short film out now with Uma Thurman (see Pirelli on YouTube ). Same theme.



References
Duncan, Tom (2005). Principles of Advertising & IMC. McGraw-Hill
Pfanner, Eric (January 29, 2006). On Advertising: Film or Ad? Ask Pirelli. International Herald Tribune. Retrived on August 23, 2008 from http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/29/business/ad30.php

The Cluetrain Manifesto: Should Anarchy Replace Structured Communications

First published online and then as a book, The Cluetrain Manifesto (see their website) was an apocalyptic warning. Things were unraveling. Systems were broken. The Internet unleashed long-term trends that would assert themselves.

“Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.”


Many acted. Microsoft and IBM both have employees talking directly to customers. In fact, Joe Cox reports (see Microsoft Watch) that Microsoft has over 5,000 employee blogs and quite often Microsoft makes major product announcements only on these blogs, not incorporating one or another of its marketing agencies.

How effective are the differnet implementations of the Cluetrain Manifesto?

John Cass is a marketer and a researcher at Forrester and has made a startling finding (see his blog ). Dell and Macromedia use a dedicated approach, and control communications that uses Social Media rather than take the wide-open approach of IBM or Microsoft. Dell and Macromedia are doing quite well with such an approach. Cass notes that

“Macromedia and Dell empowered employees with resources, while IBM and Microsoft give only verbal encouragement without the backing of cash and resources. There may not be a difference in strategy between the dedicated approach and the cluetrain manifesto, just in tactics.”

He highlights two of the manifesto theses, 48 and 51:

48. When corporate intranets are not constrained by fear and legalistic rules, the type of conversation they encourage sounds remarkably like the conversation of the networked marketplace.

51. Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia.

But he concludes that anarchy does not work. While the Cluetrain Manifesto helped focus attention on change that is needed for marketing communications because of the Internet and Social Media tools, "[it] did not provide a really effective road map for how to open up a company.”

Marketing communications is a discipline. By focusing their Social Media efforts on smaller groups capable of effective marketing communications, and providing them with support, Dell and Macromedia have been effective. Microsoft succeeded when it provided the logistics to trained communications professionals like Robert Scoble. Cass says:

“Maybe in the process of encouraging open conversation, companies like Microsoft and IBM have failed to give the training, tools and tactics necessary for success. While, Macromedia and Dell’s focus on a smaller group of dedicated people has produced more results.”

John's book is:

The New Media Collaboration Project

The Collaboration Project is a vibrant community of public administrators working to improve government services through the use of social media. The Project works in conjunction with the National Academy of Public Administrators commissioned by Congress to provide an independent perspective for resolving the most complex problems facing large organizations. While primarily focused on government, the Collaboration Project can provide insights to commercial uses of social media as well. It is located at CollaborationProject.

The Pillar Post for the Project’s blog expresses the Project Mission, to foster a “conversation about Web 2.0 and how it can be used to solve some of the critical problems facing America.” It also gives an overview of the database of case studies on the use of new media, as well as the content section of the site with detailed research, some by the Project and some by the New Paradigm organization.

Some highlights in the Case Studies database include:

American Solutions For Winning the Future
"A wiki site to draft proposals, create teams, post comments and rewrite proposed solutions to the problems America faces."

Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model Working Group
"Uses social media for information exchange processes to enable national information sharing."

Flu Wiki
"The purpose of Flu Wiki is to help local communities prepare for and cope with a possible pandemic influenza."

NASA World Wind
"Social Media as a way to continuously expand the data and imagery available in World Wind."

National Institutes of Health on Second Life
"Second Life, the virtual world filled with avatars, creates opportunities for members of the NIH community to become more accessible."

NOAA Virtual World
"Thanks to Second Life, people can now be educated about the Earths' environment in a myriad of ways."

Office of the Director for National Intelligence Intellipedia
"Intellipedia is a peer-to-peer online collaboration network built on the same open-source software used by Wikipedia which allows intelligence analysts to share information."

Peer-to-Patent Project, US Patent and Trademark Office
"Social media organizes public participation to improve the quality of issued patents."

Washington D.C.'s Citywide Data Warehouse
"The District of Columbia was searching for a way to improve service delivery, drive efficiencies, enhance public safety, and reduce costs."


In addition to the case studies, research papers are published. These are located at ContentLibrary. A Blog has been deployed and its latest post is titled Most Companies use Games; Shouldn’t You?

This site has promise and is well worth tracking.

WordPress Blog: Closed Nature of an Open Source New Media Tool

There are a variety of new media software applications that provide blog, wiki and forum functionality on intranets. Open Source new media tools offer a platform independence advantage when compared with the comprehensive Microsoft SharePoint Portal Suite. SharePoint is tightly integrated with Windows and Internet Information Server (IIS). Platform independence has proved true of CanvasWiki, Galleon, and Mango Open Source.

WordPress surprised us.

It requires MySQL to operate (see WordPress Support Post) Database independence through ODBC has been available for 17 years so it is surprising that an open source design would not have considered it.

That aside, the installation process was a breeze, the famous five minute install. The software is located at WordPress Download.

Our platform is Windows 2003 Server with IIS. Our database is SQL Server so we needed to install and configure MySQL, available from Sun at MySQL Download. Again, the MySQL installation was very straightforward. We use a graphical user interface to administer MySQL available at Kovocs. Our installation steps were:

1. Install PHP. An MSI file for the Windows version of PHP can be downloaded from http://us3.php.net/get/php-5.2.6-win32-installer.msi/from/a/mirror


2. Once PHP is installed, we added index.php as index page in IIS.


3. Create a folder in Inetpub\wwwroot to hold the blog


4. Create a database in MySQL


5. Change wp-config_sample.php to wp-config.php


6. Edit wp-config.php and add db info


7. Start Firefox and open Inetpub\wwwroot\thefolderyou justcreated/wp-admin/install.php
   

WordPress has proved to be full-featured, and very flexible. It lends itself very well to a professional appearance.

Service Level Agreement for Social Media Services

Social Media tools can enhance the collaboration and relationship building an organization has with its various integrated communications publics. Marketing aside, functions such as employee relations, investor relations, government relations and vendor communications can all be enhanced through these tools. Both commercial packages such as Microsoft Sharepoint Server and Open Source software such as Mango, CanvasWiki, Galleon, WordPress, TypePad and many others are also available. Software as a Service blogs such as Blogger.com can be used as well.

Groups using commercial or Open Source social media need to enlist the services of information technology professionals to support the system. To eliminate misunderstanding and wrong expectations, a service level agreement should be executed between the IT support professionals and the group using the social media.

The service should be described and the functions provided should be listed. These should include the maintenance functions that will be needed and the time windows when maintenance will be performed. Also those functions that are specifically excluded should be listed. Another important point is to identify who is responsible for customizing the site.

The high level information technology architecture should be described and this should include the security model. Performance goals to get a blog site back in operation should be established , and a set of response performance measures should be agreed to.

An example agreement is located at Social_Media_SLA

New Media Will Challenge Intellectual Property Claims

New media allows each of us to publish our own works, with the illusion that we have copyrighted the material published. However, only the legally proficient will be able to truely establish an enforceable copyright. They know how to properly register the idea and define its scope, and also to discover and contest unauthorized use. Although, there is talk of a poor man’s copyright, “the United States Copyright Office makes clear that the technique is no substitute for actual registration.” (see Wikipedia Copyright)

Powerful companies are preparing defenses against accusations of copyright violations of other’s intellectual property. They are buying and building huge copyright and patent portfolios, and using them in marketing communications. Because of their skillful legal council, they have been able to gain ownership of very fundamental processes. This is especially true in the computer field. For example, Microsoft has patented the understanding of music (The Day the Music Died)

Subtle marketing communications will scare corporate procurement away from weak patent defenders to the strong. For example, in its public relations Microsoft contends that Linux has stolen and violated 235 of its patents and copyrights (see Fortune ). Corporate procurement now faces future charges of knowing violation of intellectual property protections and the ISO 19770 standards on Intellectual Property if they switch from Windows to Linux.

The Open Source community is intransigent in its position. Richard Stallman says software should be free. The community deftly argues that ideas in the computer industry are communal mathematics and should be treated as such (like Folk Art).

Microsoft parries Stallman and says that open source has been reckless with intellectual property. Microsoft has additionally formed a relationship with SuSe Linux and as part of that relationship, SuSe Linux now pays Microsoft royalties on the 235 violations (see Money Mag ), establishing a precedent, and undermining the other Linux vendors and the Open Source Community in general.

The Open Source community has been outflanked by a combination of marketing communications and partnering relationships, which one could argue are also part of marketing communications.

In the end, Microsoft is now accused of stifling Open Source with “patent warfare” see (Patent Colonialism ) Folk culture is indefensible because it cannot hire the marketing communications expertise to lay out effective strategy and legal talent to execute winning tactics. Powerful multinationals will own all human ideas and moralize that we, the great unwashed are ethically violating their intellectual property rights when we try any innovation by our lonesome.

The New Media will accelerate this confrontation by enabling the masses to publish. Many will wonder how you can patent the concept of music. The Open Source community understands the legal intricacies the powerful companies are employing and work within that framework. Not the masses. I suspect they will want common sense.

Phaeton: New Media IMC

Although VW had a highly successful marketing campaign for their New Beetle, there is another VW brand that did not fair so well, the Phaeton. Still sold in the rest of the world, it was withdrawn from the U.S. in 2007 after three years. Although VW seemed to hit, mechanically at least, all the IMC tactics and tools that made the New Beetle a success, there was not much buzz for the Phaeton.

This should not have surprised VW. The iconic Beetle still had traction a generation later, a part of our retro-chic culture today. The New Beetle IMC job was to reacquaint old friends for $16,000, the Phaeton IMC job was orders of magnitude harder, to turn strangers into friends, and charge them $74,000.

The VW corporate theme is advanced and innovative transportation solutions. They used the new media in the Phaeton rollout to the U.S., including short film. Here is their introduction to the Phaeton.

VW worked with new media such as RoadandTrack.com during the introduction of the car through traditional press releases given to interested magazines. What's new Volkswagen.

Why didn't the new media rally behind this introduction like they did the New beetle? A critical news value is impact - what is the magnitude of the news event. Also is there a human interest angle? Not much with these - no nostalgia, no fond memories, no traction from clever old ad campaigns that revolutionized IMC as did the Beetle.

One wonders why, since VW already owns Audi, Bugatti and Bentley, they would want to also make the VW brand name synonymous with high end luxury cars. Nevertheless, their chief engineer thought it a good idea, and here they are sponsoring golf tournaments with the new VW Phaeton brand name, trying to make it a high-end marque. Miami sponsorship.

They did a good job with these. They had Indy 500 champ drivers taking the golfers for test drives. This would seem to be opportunities for local media to cover the story but not many takers. Early on there was incredulity about the price tag for the "people's car."

They do have video news releases (VNRs). There are also short film documentaries about the Phaeton on youTube that make it look exciting. Here is an example: Utube.

Steve Parker at Automotive news pretty well sums up the attitude from the press about the Phaeton: "It's a fantastic, fun car --- But VW has a division named Audi to sell cars in this price class" (seeBrand issue - AUDI not VW division).

The car is a wonderful machine. It is the only car to win the International Forum for Design. It has input from the Bugatti, Bently and Audi divisions of VW. It is the only car to win the gold award at the Iternational Forum for Design (see DesignWinner).

I think this was a failure because they should not have spent so much on a good car to put it in an odd market niche. How consistent is the Phaeton with target segment for VW?

Fractal Art in Mobile Marketing

Fractals provide useful video art for mobile marketing. Large and amorphous patterns crystallize into smaller, distinct shapes. Or the logistic equation can be graphed in reverse from chaos to tipping point to order. The advantage of these as dynamic logos is that a small code module can be downloaded to create them rather than the download of a large video. The downside would be security concerns.

An example is the Focusing Triangles Fractal with code included in this post.

'******************************************************************************************
' This program creates a diffuse pattern and focuses it to a crisp, smaller triangle.
' Author: George Ray
'******************************************************************************************
Option Explicit
Dim iGMR, RandNum As Integer
Dim gmrDenom As Double
Dim gmrAx, gmrAy, gmrBx, gmrBy, gmrCx, gmrCy, gmrPx, gmrPy As Double
Sub Main()
gmrDisplay.BackColor = QBColor(0)
gmrDisplay.Show
Call gmrLogo
End Sub

Sub gmrLogo()
gmrAx = 5000 / 4
gmrAy = 3000 / 4
gmrBx = 4000 / 4
gmrBy = 5000 / 4
gmrCx = 6000 / 4
gmrCy = 5000 / 4
gmrPx = 5000 / 4
gmrPy = 4000 / 4

gmrDisplay.PSet (gmrAx, gmrAy), RGB(255, 0, 0)
gmrDisplay.PSet (gmrBx, gmrBy), RGB(255, 0, 0)
gmrDisplay.PSet (gmrCx, gmrCy), RGB(255, 0, 0)

gmrDenom = 1.5
Randomize
For gmrDenom = 1.2 To 2.2 Step 0.4
For iGMR = 1 To 10000
RandNum = Int(3 * Rnd + 1)
If RandNum = 1 Then
gmrPx = (gmrAx + gmrPx) / gmrDenom
gmrPy = (gmrAy + gmrPy) / gmrDenom
gmrDisplay.PSet (gmrPx, gmrPy), RGB(255, 0, 0)
ElseIf RandNum = 2 Then
gmrPx = (gmrBx + gmrPx) / gmrDenom
gmrPy = (gmrBy + gmrPy) / gmrDenom
gmrDisplay.PSet (gmrPx, gmrPy), RGB(0, 255, 0)
ElseIf RandNum = 3 Then
gmrPx = (gmrCx + gmrPx) / gmrDenom
gmrPy = (gmrCy + gmrPy) / gmrDenom
gmrDisplay.PSet (gmrPx, gmrPy), RGB(0, 0, 255)
End If
Next iGMR
Next gmrDenom
End Sub

If you have difficulty with the code, please post a comment and I will try to help.

Microsoft and New Media. Port25.

There is a growing belief that the Internet is a more interesting place than the PC and that the next generation of software will be developed on the Internet. Such work is furthered by the Open Source Initiative, which encourages the sharing and contributions of the wide audience on the Internet. Open Source software strikes at the essence of Microsoft, the value add it gives to the environment is offered for free by open source.

Microsoft must address the emergent open source software. The most important publics are not only the open source community, but equally government and large corporate customers. Social media can give Microsoft both feedback information as well as voice for its open source related messages. Port25 is a Microsoft blog for interactive communications about open source.

Naturally, Microsoft puts a positive spin on the Port25 mission. “Port 25 is about having a healthy conversation with customers and the industry wherein people can talk openly and honestly about their biggest interoperability challenges, whether it is on UNIX, Linux, Windows, or among other open source packages.” The pillar posts for the blog were published in March 2006 and stressed the interoperability theme. A prime example is at http://port25.technet.com/archive/2006/03/31/Faces-from-the-Collective_3A00_-Shared-memory-anyone_3F00_.aspx and is a video interview with a noted Open Source guru who had been hired by Microsoft.


The site seems to be in decline. Over the past two months, only seventeen posts have been made. Here is an IceRocket trend graph:



My conclusion in reading the Port25 postings and responses is that Microsoft is trying to send an interoperability message to the three publics I mentioned above. Only the Open Source technical public is commenting. This is no interactive communication with strategic buyers. Top Microsoft management should engage in this blog to expand the scope of interactive communications to also capture strategic buyer interest.


To read a more complete analysis, see Redmond Review Port25.

Social Media at the U.S. Mint

The U.S. Mint is a revenue-generating agency that has a profit making relationship with its numismatist public. The U.S. Mint for Kids site (Link to Mint for Kids) is good case study for analyzing how the ethics of marketing to children would apply in the new media.

A Detailed Site Description
The U.S. Mint handily describes the site as a “fun, educational tool to generate interest in coins the U.S. Mint and U.S. History.” The site displays animated cartoons appropriate for children. It also has coloring pages related to the topic of the U.S. Mint and coins. For older students, there is an on-line library, and downloadable articles on topics related to coins.



It also has 21 games ranging in difficulty from simple to complex. All of the games involve a trivial pursuit theme, naturally related to coins. All in all, this site has comprehensive information about the products it sells in an age appropriate, attention getting format.



Does the Site Work in Promoting Coins?
According to Director Michelle Bartrum, (See Wiley) the Mint’s revenue generating activities were ideal for the Web. After her introduction of Web marketing, sales at the Mint jumped from $2000 per week to $1.4M per week. She also introduced a series of communities of interest accessible from their Web Site.

David Scott’s ground-breaking book The New Rules of Marketing and PR could have used Bartrum’s strategy with kids as a case study to reinforce his points about “thoughtful and informative” content driving marketing (p 31). David continues to emphacize content on his blog, see Optimizing a Site.

Bartrum’s stated purpose in creating communities of interest was “to develop an ‘online community’ of coin enthusiasts that return to the site over and over.” This not only included kids but a special effort was made to reach out to kids.

Is it Ethical?
In his book, Business Ethics, DeGeorge (2005, pp 343-344) discusses the morality of marketing to children. Marketing intended to be manipulative is generally held to be unethical. Because of their unique vulnerabilities, children are more easily manipulated and so precautions are necessary.

Young children are very impressionable and believe most of what they hear and are unable to clearly separate truth from fantasy. Adolescent children can critically attack fantasies but are still vulnerable because of their social insecurity. The morality test is "does the marketing coerce or manipulate?"

According to this standard, the U.S. Mint for Kids site is right on the line. It is reaching to an interested segment of young children, with a potentially high frequency. It is driving home the allure of coins. It has effectively increased sales. In reviewing the site, though, the intent seems to be information rather than manipulation.

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, WOMMA prohibits marketing to children under the age of 13 as unethical (See Media Post or WOMMA). According to this standard, the U.S. Mint is unethical since it has clearly defined marketing goals and tactics it is employing to reach pre-teens. I do not consider the U.S. Mint Kids site to be unethical. Integrated Marketing Communication per se is not unethical and the U.S. Mint Kids site does not attempt to exploit the mentioned vulnerabilities of young children or adolescents. The WOMMA Code does not seem realistic in this regard.

The law pertaining to child web marketing is the The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) (see EPIC) and it prescribes limits to the “collection of personal information when a child participates in online games and contests.” Naturally, the U.S. Mint did not violate the statutory restrictions.

Buzz Building Basics for Blogs

Yaro Starak has published ten techniques to create buzz for a blog (see Blog Buzz )

I am experimenting with Starak’s first tip and have created five pillar posts for my blog, which is about new media. He also recommends preparing a steady supply of other postings on new media that can be added to the blog so it doesn’t get stale.

My first buzz building technique is to do what both Starak and Scott recommend and comment on other blogs. Scott (p 211) says “Commenting on other blogs and including a link back to your own is a good way to build audience.” I plan to go to the blogs that have high traffic according to IceRocket, for “new media”, “integrated marketing communications” as keywords.

My second buzz building technique is to find a blog carnival on “new media” or “integrated marketing communications” and submit one or more of my blog posts. I will go to blogcarnival.com to find appropriate carnivals.

My third and longer term buzz building strategy is book-marking. I have included widgets on my blog for book-marking with Del.Icio.Us and Digg so others can bookmark my site. I will bookmark my blog with my accounts on these sites once everything is ready to go. According to Arrington (2008, p1 ), Yahoo has integrated Del.Icio.Us into its results rankings. Del.Icio.Us book-marking can improve the search results ranking for my blog.

Here is the html for adding a link to Del.Icio.Us book-marking:

(a onclick="window.open('http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title), 'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=400'); return false;" href="http://del.icio.us/post")
(img src="http://redmondreview.com/Cases/save_del2.JPG" /)
(/a)

Here is the html for adding Digg book-marking:

(a title="George's%20New%20Media%20Review%207"" href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://gmrwvu.blogspot.com/" target="_blank")
(img src="http://redmondreview.com/Cases/save_dig2.JPG" /)
(/a)

Another buzz building technique that Starak recommends is Trackbacking. This is including my posts references to other popular blogs on new media and integrated marketing communications such as Paul Gillin’s blog, and David Scott’s blog. Unfortunately, blogger.com does not support TrackBacking at this time (see BloggerCom_TrackBack ).

Microsoft and New Media. The Yahoo! deal.

Microsoft needs a revenue source for its products and services in a future contended by Software as a Service, and one characterized by increasing acceptance of Open Source. Microsoft recently lost in its bid to acquire Yahoo with its well defined new media offerings coordinated with advertising revenue.

A Redmond Review article, (see Redmond Review Yahoo) cites physicist Mark Buchanan's report on mathematical studies of networks that show the phase of super-connected hubs (such as Google and Yahoo today) eventually give way to more egalitarian networks from the simple processes of history and growth. Many nodes connect to Yahoo or Google as a start to searching out information. However, Buchanan’s conclusion on networks is that “Whenever limitations or costs eventually come into play to impede the richest getting still richer, then a small-world network becomes more egalitarian, as seems to be the case with airports and a number of other real-world networks.”

Furthermore, according to Arms (2002, pp 211-215) there is no goal of indexing the Internet entirely by any of the search sites. There is a higher return on investment for improving the secondary aspects of the search tools so they integrate better with revenue generating functions such as advertising or sales of the web search engine for corporate knowledge management software solutions. We have reached a point where the technical costs to overcome the limitations of web search engines is prohibitive and a plateau in functionality has been set. As with airports, other sites will eventually catch up with the leaders, and not much will distinguish one from the other.

Niche search sites have established themselves as a brand. Today’s two largest super-connected nodes on the Internet get the majority of advertising revenue. However, the trends in marketing may also be working against the continuation of the current aristocratic nature of the Internet.

Marketing is moving away from mass advertising the same message to a large audience. According to Duncan (2005, pp 211-212) the value of the Internet is the ability to send custom messages to highly targeted customer segments. The reach of a relevant message to a small but coherent group is higher than a general and therefore mostly irrelevant message to a large group. As the ability to identify and verify audience characteristics for smaller, specialty sites improves, advertising revenue may shift from Google and Yahoo to this new direction.

Failure to buy Yahoo was good fortune for Microsoft, the price was dear and prospects not as profitable as imagined. Super-connected nodes in an aristocratic network often give way to more egalitarian networks over time, their advantage then lost. That time is now for Google and Yahoo.

References
Arms, William Y. (2001). Digital Libraries. The MIT Press.

Duncan, Tom (2005). Advertising & IMC. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.