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Stopwatch Marketing

06 Jan 2008

January/February will be a month of reviews in between advertising rants and campaigns, because yesterday I offered to review a book from Jaffe Juice, and today I got contacted by John Rosen who was kind enough to put me on his list to review the Stopwatch Marketing book. I am delighted to have some new books to put on my bedside table or to read on the train rides back and forth from Amsterdam, and I’m looking forward to write down my findings for the readers of this blog. Stay tuned for that. Below is a short overview of Stopwatch Marketing. More information can be found on the dedicated blog.

    Sometimes shopping takes minutes, but is still too long; sometimes shopping takes months, and the shopper is sad to see it end. In Stopwatch Marketing, you will learn that time isn’t money; it’s much more important than that. Understanding how much time and energy consumers are willing to spend shopping for a particular purchase – their shopping strategies – is the single most important (and overlooked) thing you need to know in order to succeed in selling your product or service to them.

    In Stopwatch Marketing, we identify four basic shopping strategies – impatient, reluctant, painstaking, and recreational – and show how to analyze, evaluate, and exploit the time that represents every shopper’s most important resource; how to understand and measure the length of time your customer will spend searching for your product or service; and how to make absolutely certain that your product or service is close to the front of your customer’s queue.

    Many of America’s best-known and most successful companies are using the principles of Stopwatch Marketing™ every day to achieve spectacular growth in both margin and market share. The book includes fresh company examples such as Tempur-pedic, Microsoft, Goodyear and MasterLock as well as completely original interpretations of popular case studies like Lexus, Charles Schwab, Apple, Commerce Bank and Whole Foods. Our book not only shares their stories, but offers step-by-step guidelines for building an entire marketing strategy around stopwatch principles. Our success in applying these principles to our clients’ businesses gives us confidence that we are on to something quite new and interesting in the marketing world: the criticality of the customer’s time demands in reaching a purchase decision.

This certainly seems to be an interesting read, and to be honest, seeing Microsoft in their list of examples made me quite curious to know which of the techniques or tactics are being applied. (I work for Microsoft, in case you missed my switch). Other than that, I really look forward to dig deeper in the strategies to get consumers to spend as much as they can in the shortest amount of time possible, without blasting them over with an overload of teasers or bombing them with spam. To be continued…

 
2 Comments

Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Advertising, Marketing, Reviews

 

First Rant Of The Year

04 Jan 2008

Hah. I hope everyone had a great seasonal break and a very well executed leap from the past to the future. May 2008 bring you joy, happiness and a lot of things you dream of. As usual with such occasions, other people say things better than I do so:

Obligatory quote: “Cherish your yesterdays, dream your tomorrows but live your todays.”

Thank you, Phillip Vandervoort. ;-)

And so we get to the order of business. I would like to thank 3/4th of my address book for sending me chain mails ‘which they usually don’t do but hey you never know’, so in the past year:

  • I’ve won at least 7 big lottery tickets, who’ve apparently gotten my e-mail address because some friend enroled me. Party invitations will follow as soon as the cash comes in!
  • About 150 times, my hotmail account would have been deleted unless I would forward an email to all people in my address list, for which Bill Gates (who is still giving away his fortune) then would donate 1 cent per email I’d receive back, and I have received MANY!!!
  • I have accumulated 3000 years of bad karma and have died about 50 times for all the e-mails my spam catcher actually caught and thus they never reached me, unfortunately. So I could not take the appropriate actions.

So, given that last fact I need to spend my fortune fast ! But:

  • I donated a lot of money to the poor litte Amy Bruce, a young girl with a Nigerian bank account who has been in the hospital for over 7000 times (which is really bad, especially since the girl still remains 8 years old, even since the first email was sent out in 1995)
  • I didn’t receive the free Nokia cell phone yet which I was supposed to have had because I would be the next winner if I would put my name and email address on that list and send it to 25 friends, but I haven’t given up hope yet!
  • I did enter my name amongst 3000 others on a petition to save the starving and nearly extincted shaven red-blue scaled yellow-feathered night owl, so I contributed to the protection and safe-keeping of nature and such.
  • I have learned that the recipe for TRUE LOVE (combined from 3 emails) is in fact to write a boy’s/girl’s name on a piece of paper, think really hard about him/her whilst scratching your butt when holding your breath and then running up and down the stairs 7 times on your bare feet after a walk through the grass filled with morning dew. AND I expect this true love to call me the day after tomorrow at exactly 12.45 PM CET.
  • I have received at least 18 poems of the Dalai Lama, and by reading them aloud 7 times in a row each, that should kind of bring me guaranteed luck for the next 3752 years (which would compensate with the 3000 years of bad karma accumulated and mentioned above)
  • I have ordered 3 backup hard disks to cover the potential virus damage of the trojan horse that none of the known virus scanners could see but (combined from 5 emails) that is only text based with one image of a naked lady and would delete my entire C: drive while playing Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’ during a tilted screen as if Titanic would sink, as soon as the email would open.

So, I think it was a good year, and I expect 2008 to be at least as good. And by the way:

IF YOU DO NOT COPY-PASTE THIS BLOGPOST WITH YOUR LEFT HAND IN AN E-MAIL IN THE NEXT 10 SECONDS AND SEND IT TO AT LEAST 8500 PEOPLE, A GIANT DINOSAUR FROM SPACE IS GOING TO EAT YOUR FAMILY TOMORROW AT 5.30 PM SHARP, NO MATTER WHAT TIMEZONE YOU ARE IN.

Just so you know.

.
Thanks for the idea, Arns. It made me feel better, just like you promised.

 
9 Comments

Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Thoughts

 

The End Of Social Networking

20 Dec 2007

Urgh. Now it’s official I HATE SOCIAL NETWORKS. I’ve been relatively patient with the various networks that found their way to my PC screen. Time and again I have entered my data, favorite movies, favorite dish, restaurants, people I like and dislike. I’ve been part of social networks as soon as they started to appear and as it comes to ‘networking’ which is the entire point of social networking, I’ve done my share of participation. But recently, I have become very very disgruntled by this initiative called Spock. I never signed up for Spock and have ignored the dozens of emails of people who begged for my trust on this network. I saw no added value other than the fact that it bothered me already with dozens of requests before I even knew about it. What is the use of requesting trust and practically begging for it by sending out a blast of emails. Trust is something you need to earn, and people have to give it to you. Asking for it is like starting with a cherry and putting cake around it. Trust is the cherry, it needs to be on top.

Then very recently, somebody said: hey did you know the tags on Spock for your name are [list of all tags here, going up to 30 tags], and that just pisses me off. If I choose not to be on a network, by which law has this network the right to add me and to add tags to my name? Seriously, this is becoming a dangerous precedent. I’d like to compare it with the telemarketing lists of companies that call you to ask for your valued opinion or to offer you an extremely exceptional product. This is wrong. Very wrong.

It appears to me, Spock scraped my linked-in profile and added every word of my work history as a tag. Not only do I think linked-in needs to file a complaint about this, because Spock is leeching on their network, I also think that Spock is violating my privacy by taking data from a site I enrolled to, who specifically promised to take care of my data very well. Spock breaks this promise by nicking my data.

To me, this ties the knot for social networking. Screw it. I’ve had enough. I’m going to make everything private and send emails to every service I did not sign up for that holds my data, to kindly ask them to remove it. Other than that, I think the time calls to have an organization of some sort where you can enlist, a little bit like we have the Robinson list for emails and marketing actions. If you’re on that list, nobody is entitled to add you to their service unless they have specific approval.

Which then brings me to another thing I’m kind of bothered about. I use social networks to add people I know, with experience in a certain field, so I can contact them when I need to. Facebook is ruining this for me. Last time I logged in, I had vampire invitations, zombie invitations, snowball fight requests, pillow fight requests and so on. As much as that seems funny, it’s totally useless and a waste of time. Other than the fact that most of the applications then ask you to invite all your friends to join, which I definitely don’t want to seeing the professional nature of some relationships, I still have my serious doubts about the sense it all has to make. Is social networking really all about recruiting a zombie army? About converting people to vampires? To me it isn’t. And I’m tired of it. I will kick out any entertaining application on Facebook and strip it down to a minimum, because the day this thing turns loco, I don’t want to bomb people I respect with a load of crap.

Today, when you look around, social networking is all about entertainment. The level of seriousness and of trust has dropped to the likes of an average show in NBC or Fox. Now people make lists of best friends, and when they did that, they invite you to compete to become bestest friend. And if you’re on the bestest friends list, you can go through a selection process and become part of an entourage… Jeez. I have better things to do. If you want to connect with me, you know where to find me. If you want to add me, sure give me a reason and I will add you. If you want to send me a private message with a question, go ahead and I’ll answer. But please leave me alone with all the other sideshows and gadgets. Really.

 
22 Comments

Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Social Networks, Thoughts

 

Delicious Men

13 Dec 2007

Living up to its brand promise, Axe came out with a tasty new commercial a little while ago. Unlike the ‘we make a nerd be loved by gorgeous women’ approach, they now offer you the real deal. Using their deodorant, you will be changed into a yummy chocolate man and all women will want to have a piece of you. I think I’m going to move to the US, buy the deodorant and then sue Axe for not living up to its promises. Hah!

Video: Axe Chocolate
Thanks for the clip, Arns

 
6 Comments

Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing, Video

 

Reality Stinks

11 Dec 2007

If you thought you’ve experienced it all and advertisement could no longer shock/bother/make you think anymore (pick one), then here is quite the eye-opener for you. To protest against whale hunting, a poster of a whale has been hung against a wall, the whale is sliced open so that its guts come out (apparently a normal procedure), and below the poster on the floor are… some remains of intestins. I hope this ad ran in well-ventilated areas only, and I also hope that there was no restaurant nearby. These concerns put aside, this thing comes smashing in your face like a fly on a bicycle ride. And if you have my kinda luck and the fly happens to be right there when you’re talking and flies right in your throat, the effect would most likely be the same.

Tasty Whale

Done for IFAW, the international fund for animal welfare.

Agency: Republic of Everyone/Happy Soldiers, Sydney, Australia
Creative Director / Art Director / Copywriter: Happy Soldiers
Photographer: Adrian Lander
Retoucher: Electric Art
Released: December 2007
Via: AdsOfTheWorld

 
3 Comments

Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

 

Victoria Bitter Bottle Orchestra

11 Dec 2007

Arns just sent in a funny commercial I just had to post. Might be a bit older already, seeing that it’s from a beer brand from down under, and it sometimes takes a while for those campaigns to reach this part of the world. Nevertheless, I thought it was pretty cool to see a beer brand sponsor a philharmonic orchestra on the one hand AND supply all of their instruments on the other. Must have taken aaaaages to set this all straight to the right tones and to tune the contents of the bottles to create a synchronical melody out of it with such a group of people. Nice job!

Video:Victoria Bitter

In case you didn’t know: Australia’s favourite full strength beer, Victoria Bitter or VB as it’s fondly known, has a tradition of rewarding hard work and hard play, dating back to the 1890s. More info on their beersite.

 
3 Comments

Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing, Video

 

Blow Up Your Phone

11 Dec 2007

Would you like to earn a life long calling credit of € 150 amonth? Or maybe one year of free flying with Air Europa? Would you sacrifice your phone for that too? If the answer to all of these questions is a loud and clear ‘YES I DO’ the dig up your finest Spanish and surf your funky behind to Haz volar tu móvil?, a small microsite far a campaign by Pepephone, a Spanish mobile operator. Participants in the contest are invited to put their clips on YouTube (of all places) and if you’re the lucky bird, you might even win € 5000 for your entry. That should be enough to buy you a brand new phone. Thing is… if you don’t win… :-) Ah well. You’ll win, right?

Video: Blow Up Your Phone
Via: BuzzingBees | Bajo La Linea

 
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Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

 

Sexual Confusion

11 Dec 2007

T-post is a wearable magazine. Subscribing to T-post is a lot like having a subscription to a magazine but instead of receiving magazines in your mailbox, you receive T-shirts. As a subscriber you receive a new t-shirt every six weeks based on a current news item. The topic is interpreted by select designers and the written story printed on the inside.

“What’s fascinating about T-post is the interaction. Nobody asks you about the article you just read in the bathroom. But if you’re wearing an issue of T-post, people tend to ask what it’s about. The next thing you know, you’re talking about the ethical treatment of robots or some bank robbers in Brazil who got away with 45 million bucks, you’re forming your own opinion, getting someone else to think about the topic, and it just keeps going. That’s what’s magic about this media, it gives everyone a chance to interpret a news story and communicate it in their own way.” said Peter Lundgren Editor-in-Chief at T-Post.

This is yet another superb idea, to convert people into living billboards. If you find people ready to do this, then I guess there is some sort of market for it. But I’m also guessing it would be limited to some sort of countries/seasons. I mean, looking at Belgium… how many months are there in a year in which you are ‘just’ wearing a t-shirt, and not a pull-over too. I’m thinking, june-july-august and maybe september too. All the other months… I’ll be dressed with a little more than a t-shirt (apart from shoes and pants, obviously). That said, it’s weird to see this sort of innovative trend come over from Sweden, since I assume it is even colder there than it is here. Still a good idea though. Could appeal very well to fashionistas.

Here is their latest issue: Sexual Confusion by FormaFantasma

Sexual Confusion

Capture quote:

It all started out as an experiment, a fun project amongst friends, but as of today we have 2500 subscribers from over 45 countries. We don’t think a bunch of T-shirts are going to save the world. We just want to get people talking and see what happens after that.

Feel like you’re up to it? Subscribe here, at T-Post. A subscription is 26 EUR per T-shirt, and can be delivered anywhere in the world. All shipping costs are included in that price.

 
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Posted by Miel Van Opstal in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

 
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