Marketing Needs the 5th P

Why Payment Now Belongs with Product, Price, Place and Promotion as a Key Decision Lever

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

Since the 1960s, - the smartest of marketers have developed an offer taxonomy based on the 4 Ps—product, price, place and promotion. For years these 4 Ps have helped us marketers measure, classify and optimize different offers against one another based largely on these trigger points, allowing for an organized and optimized marketing mix that drives revenue with the most efficiency.  And that taxonomy-- or process of determining how all the offers from brands should be broken down into distinguishable pieces, has held its grip on the marketing industry.

Facebook Digs Deeper into Privacy Concerns

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

According to a post in the September 23^rd issue of the Financial Times, Facebook is partnering with a “controversial” data company called Datalogix that can “track whether people who see ads on the social networking site end up buying those products in stores.”  

Of course, this announcement has raised concerns with privacy advocates who have continually been concerned about marrying online profiles and presence with offline data since the purchase of Abacus (a Datalogix competitor) by Doubleclick (an online ad-serving company later bought by Google) in the late 90s.

Persona Development – An Update

In this great post from Perianne Grignon of [x + 1], she argues that the concept of media is dead, saying “obviously at one level – as a means for reaching the right audiences with relevant messages – the answer is “yes”. But if you’re still thinking of media as an array of discreet channels that need to be individually planned for, bought, optimized and managed, the answer needs to be a loud and emphatic “no.”

At Pluris, we wholeheartedly agree with this message.  Our Offer Optimization solution runs across all channels, and its goal is to deliver a consistent message to each consumer regardless of channel.  About a year ago, we posted our thinking on personas as a means to provide “color” to statistics. 

5 Reactions to Facebook’s “Page Post Targeting Enhanced”

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

Facebook creates so much news that it’s easy to miss a new set of features aimed at marketers- even when those very changes can have big implications on how brands speak to you on the social platform.  Last week, nestled between the social buzz of the Olympics and ups and downs of its stock price, the social network rolled out a bevy of new ways for marketers to take advantage of  things such as your age, interests, gender, relationship status and more to inform how they ‘speak’ to you.

Embracing the Big Data Deluge - If That’s What it Is

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing

Everyone is talking about big data and judging from my social streams and much of the media coverage, I’m afraid many don’t have a clear understanding about what it is, and if big data is in fact, what they are dealing with. The explosion of data has everyone thinking- “this must be a big data problem” but sadly, a few million emails, a couple thousand social messages and a customer data base, isn’t big data. It may be a lot of data to manage and a headache, but how does the average CMO or CTO build a strategy around handling their data if they prescribing it inaccurately?

Stick a Google-Shaped Fork in Barnes & Noble

Everyone hailed the Nook as smart business. Now, thanks to the very same company that powers the Nook, it’s going the way of disco -- fun while it lasted, but an impractical long term way to groove.

The hype around Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet is mostly surrounding its threat to Amazon, and while there may be merit there, the striking first casualty is Barnes & Noble. With brick and mortar bookstores and physical reading of books declining in favor of e-readers, Barnes & Noble announced plans earlier this year to this one from Peter Svenson of the Huffington Post, I am convinced that the Nexus 7 will provide me a far better experience than my Nook or a continued relationship with Barnes & Noble would. Here are my top 3 reasons as follows:

Over, Under, Missing Completely and “The Simple Truth”

3 Most Common Communication Failures Preventing Loyalty Program Success

You have heard this from your significant other. It’s the different between the playoffs and the title, a good education, and a raise. Yet marketers somehow forget it. I am speaking of course, about proper communications. They are the centerpiece of your personal relationships, and the vortex of any good loyalty program. And no matter how good you think you are at it, there is always room for improvement.

In a recent post,  I delved into gamification of  loyalty and in the midst of illustrating how real-time, location based, rewards platforms are often better suited than traditional loyalty programs,  I only gave proper communications passing reference- even though effective communications is and will always be the driving subtext of any loyalty program.

Mending Gaps in the Dynamic Customer Journey

By Bob Fetter, SVP of Pluris Marketing, a company with expertise in cross-channel offer optimization, loyalty, database marketing and advanced analytics

It’s not easy being a consumer-facing brand these days. After years building a company based on one consumer pathway, the mobile, app, email, social, geo-located, connected TV, real-time bargain hungry consumer is now touching brands in more ways and with more diverse behavior patterns than any company can keep up with. That’s 100 years of organizational design shot to hell.

Sign of Apocalypse: Merchants Pay Good Money to Give Away Their Customer Loyalty

We all know over the last several years, a growing need for cutting corners – and coupons – has paved the way for sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and others to offer attractive discounts to consumers and – as their salespeople pitch it – equally attractive perks to participating businesses. It’s changed consumer behaviors, disrupted business models on the local level and it’s made a few people very wealthy. 

Loyalty is Not a Game, or Is It?

With all the new entrants and a different playing field, loyalty marketers are not ruing as they did in the good old days when they had the consumer gaming dynamic all to themselves. Quite the contrary -- there is palpable excitement surrounding what the growing shift in consumer behavior means for their programs. Armed with a seemingly endless choice of game mechanics, technology platforms and social networks to enable new programs and a new set of consumer experiences, the loyalty sector is now more relevant than ever.

What Are Loyalty Experts Talking About?

Engagement is a buzz word of late, with every marketing firm and brand waking up to the notion that–stop the presses- engaging with and rewarding customers in relevant, timely ways generates word of mouth and increases sales. For one segment of the population however, engagement strategies have always been at the center of the sales pipeline. I am speaking of course, about loyalty marketers. You know the industry based on a system of engagement and rewards that consistently help retain customers and drive predictable sales?

What Can Brands Learn from SocialTV?

by Bob Fetter, VP Pluris Marketing

 

You have probably noticed hashtags during broadcasts, tweets streaming across the screen, second-screen applications where viewers can check in to watch a TV show together online and numerous other examples of the TV industry transforming itself into something more than a lean-back experience.  The multi-billion dollar TV industry is fast undergoing a realignment from appointment television on the couch to a real-time, 24/7 entertainment anywhere business.  So what can brands outside of the TV ecosystem learn from this?

Offer Optimization for Mobile: It’s not JUST about knowing your audience.

I spent most everyday in conversations with CMOs, loyalty program director, CIOs and executives across a variety of industries- and while many are still struggling to catch up with, and better leverage, the new behaviors of social media and the real-time web, almost none have a mobile strategy worth bragging about. Why is this?

Big Data? Let’s Take A Step Back.

Big data is the rage.  Big data companies are getting funded.  Big data scientists are getting hired.  A slew of blog posts are screaming for marketers to understand and use big data.  So what is Big data?  In a nutshell, it is doing what Google has been doing for over a decade.  Taking in, indexing and categorizing massive amount of data generated from the web.  It involves new hardware and software paradigms and new skill sets to further challenge us. 

Facebook Steals Page from “Old School” Acquisition Strategy

A shiver went down my spine this morning as I read the post “Facebook to Credit Newbies, Buy $1 get $4 free” on AllFacebook.com. Apparently, developers claim that Credits haven’t been reeling in enough paying users, so Facebook has come up with this promotion in an attempt to expand its base.

My thoughts immediately turned to the businesses of cable and wireless.  You know, the model where all the best deals go to NEW customers?  This is due to the massive competition of for lucrative monthly revenue streams of new subscribers.  And what happens when an existing subscriber calls in and asks for the same deal?  You know the answer, not much.  In reality, all that actually occurs is that subscribers are “trained” to follow these deals, and go to a new promotion from a different company when the current one ends.  

A Digital Sign of the Times

The Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Experience is exploding, and most people take it for granted. Why? Because digital signs are essentially familiar, flat panels TVs found in most homes-and signs, digital or not are seemingly everywhere these days. While there has been a push to make signs actionable through QR codes, an increasing amount of companies from retail, entertainment, and hospitality, to cabs and office building are investing in digital signage. Initially, this was because digital signage were simply more compelling visually and its inventory, more flexible.

Personalized Content is Something Consumers Want, but there is a Fine Line…

Mobile Marketer recently covered an interesting GfK MRI panel study-that shows the majority of tablet consumers want personalized ads- and the ability to buy products they are interested directly.

“Seventy percent of tablet magazine readers wish that digital magazines included tailored advertising, showing the need for more personalized experiences, according to research from GfK MRI iPanel.”

Why Is Consumer Engagement so Hard?

We know that consumers are empowered, and we know that they are not static targets to be blasted by the same messaging.  Yet companies continue to treat consumers as a mass of eyes, ears and wallets – forgetting each consumer’s unique experience with their brand.  With the proliferation  of channels and devices, customers may actually touch brands hundreds of times between purchases.  And the fact is any of those touches could cause the consumer to become frustrated and disengaged.