Atomic Ideas - Helping You Sell More Stuff!

Blog, blog, blah, blah, blah....

 
It's Monday, a tough day for thinkers everywhere. So where do lazy thinkers go for ideas for their blog? They google "blog ideas" and up pops no less than 380,000,000 articles with titles like "101 Blog Ideas", "13 Great Blog Ideas," "100 Blog Writing Ideas." 

I thought a blog was about getting vital information across, or expressing a burning opinion. But in this information age, I guess a Blog is just about reshaping and repackaging information that's already out there. Some of it, as much as 380,000,000 times!

(And yes, I just googled "Blog Cartoon" to find this, er, blog cartoon)

 

Could you just make the logo bigger?

My friend Russ pointed this story out to me last week from Ad Age: apparently The GAP redesigned their logo and slipped it onto their site last week. It seems, the online public noticed it quickly and vigorously voiced their opinion of the change: they hated it. People thought it was uninteresting, average, uninspiring and lacking in any direction. Also, the question of “why?” came up a lot. What was broken that had to be fixed?

Well, since that story broke, The GAP listened and pulled the new logo and returned to the familiar white type in a blue box logo. GAP North American president Marka Hansen admitted, in so many words, they had made a mistake. She also said that they would not evolve a new logo through “crowd sourcing,” – a plan that was initially offered last week to help ease Gap fans’ logo dislike.

How does something like this happen? Why change the company logo that’s been around for over twenty years? They changed it to an upper/lower helvetica bold in black and floated a small gradated blue box to the right, behind part of the p. (see above) On the Gap site last week they said, "We chose this design as it's more contemporary and current. It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward." Talk about gobbledegook- the little blue box represents heritage? Heritage?

Does The Gap Inc., which is part of Banana Republic and Old Navy, do any market research? Couldn’t they have done a focus group to see if logo change was even warranted? And most importantly, will a new logo help them sell more stuff? 

Tell us what you think?  

Here are a few big companies that have made logo changes over the years, (they’re usually quite gradual).

 

 

 

4 Strategic Steps To Social Media Success. P.O.S.T.

Even though Social Media seems to be the only thing anyone is talking about in marketing circles these days, it's still amazing how many companies are still apparently using it without a real strategy. 

Would you place a million dollar traditional media buy without a strategy? No way.

You would plan it down to the last penny. You would know who you are trying to reach, know where they live, and pick the right channels to reach them. Then you would deliver messaging that wows them with your marketable truths in order to prompt behavior that will help you sell more stuff.

So why do many businesses still not apply the same due diligence to their social efforts. Probably precisely because it doesn't cost a million dollars to launch a social media program... or even a hundred thousand. Most times it doesn't cost anything in real, cold cash. Just put the intern with the cool Facebook page on it and off you go. Such an approach is why, many times, the effort doesn't seem to work. It doesn't get results, because the results were never thought about or defined in a strategy.

Look, social media can work if you do it right. In fact, for many companies who have planned for success based on specific, defined goals and entered the space with a strategy, it has worked incredibly well... Zappos, Dell, Best Buy and Ford are great examples. 

Does your strategy have to be complicated? No. In fact, way back in 2008 when social buzz was just bubbling up to the surface of mainstream new media marketing consciousness, a book called Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff came out. At the center of it was a simple to remember, easy to follow four step strategy process to start you down the road to social Media success.

 
Pretty simple.  You don't need to over-think your initial social media strategy. But you do need to think about it. For more detail, read Josh Bernoff's article "The POST Method: a systematic approach to social strategy." It's as relevant today as it was when he originally wrote it in 2007. 

Let me know what you think. How would you add to, or modify this basic strategy approach knowing what you know today?

 

Pure Help

 

This has been on my mind for a awhile, I was driving the other day and heard another Pure Michigan spot on the radio. It reminded me - it really is good stuff. It’s a simple idea with great execution, radio and tv. And it has proven to be very extendable as an on-going campaign. I don’t want to talk about why it’s good stuff, it just is. I’m not saying these things because I had anything to do with this campaign; I’m saying these things because this campaign simply helps all of us in Michigan. Michigan needs a lot of help and here’s a big part of the solution.

So, I don’t get it. Why can’t the state of Michigan help fund the Pure Michigan campaign? It is such a good tool for helping our struggling economy. Not only is it good for our tourism, it’s also good for helping out-of-state companies to consider Michigan as a place to operate. We really need that. I know there’s a lot of state legislators who want to see the Pure Michigan campaign continue, but finding enough support is hard. I guess it shows just how bad our economy is these days.

Meanwhile, here’s some Pure Michigan spots you can view and send to out-of-staters to help keep the campaign afloat. Of course you can also go to you tube and vew all you want.

 

 

 

 

Atomic Ideas on TOM TOM Star Wars Promo Videos - Funny Stuff!

"Lord Vader commands you to turn to the Dark Side. Will you be able to resist as he guides you to your destination? Obi-Wan has taught you well but now it is time to choose your path. Light sabers at the ready!"

This is how Tom Tom is plugging the opportunity to have Darth himself lead you to your destiny... er, your destination that is. Or, if you are more Zen oriented, Yoda can take you there with a lot less angst and heavy breathing.

Cool ideas. Fun videos! What do you think?

Atomic Ideas On a Virile New Twist Taking Old Spice More Viral

This is cool. Maybe even brilliant. The Old Spice dude, that shirtless wonder of virile, fine-smelling masculinity Isaiah Mustafa, was out in Cyberspace yesterday engaging with influential bloggers in a pretty funny and, of course, exceptionally buzz-worthy, way.

The fun appears to have begun with a Tweet:

Then it continued with personalized video messages from the perfect specimen himself, sent via Twitter to bloggers like Perez Hilton and Guy Kawasaki, celebrities like Alyssa Milano and other lesser mortals thanking them for posts or Tweets they had written regarding the Old Spice commercials.

It just goes to show what you can do when you think outside the deodorant box and stand in a bathroom with nothing but a towel and a video camera all day long! Check out a few of the vids below. Or see them all (there's a boatload of them) on the Old Spice You Tube page.

We think it's a great idea, well-executed! What do you think?

Getting Sober on Social Media

We talked with a company that wants help on developing a compelling selling story. We talked about the four distinct marketing areas - digital, social, experiential and traditional.

And all their excitement was about what social media could do to help them get their message out.

It always seems to come up first these days. And when I hear it I think of the Bible saying, "And the first shall be last."

Social media creates conversations - recommendations, reviews - about what you're selling, but then the consumer heads to your web site to learn more, to see what you have to say about yourself and your product or service. They may be coming to buy.

And your web site is your platform, not someone else's. There've been company's Facebook pages that have been banned, sometimes for no real good reason, and 'whoops, there it goes'. All the content and all the contacts, gone in the blink of an eye,

Your web site and traditional marketing presents your marketing message, as deep as you want to go, and with more than 140 characters.

The blend of being able to state your message how you'd like, along with people talking about you how'd they like, is the new marketing mix. Traditional marketing can get people talking on the webisphere, and the webisphere can lead people to want to learn more from you.

Social media is a great, amorphous referral platform, and when it works and leads potential customers to you, are you ready on what to tell them?

Do Small Businesses Need Social Media?

Yes, absolutely. Now, let’s get to the other important stuff, stuff that really matters. March Madness is here - and one week later, we’re into the sweet 16. Of course many in the business world already know this, I think there are more office tournament pools for college basketball than any other sport’s championship during the year. Following all this hoop action is a great way for business people to let off steam and even make a couple of bucks, which is exactly what my colleague, R. Tate, will be doing this weekend, after he has dinner with his family (and his iPhone).

A lot of years bring about underdog/cinderella stories. This year there’s U of Northern Iowa, Cornell, St. Mary’s and Washington – none of which I predicted to win their first round games in my hoops bracket. Sure, we like these contests for their athleticism and competitiveness, but as aspiring business people in a tough economy, we like them for their inspirational quality. It’s the little guys taking on the big guys. It’s succeeding when everyone expects you to fail. It’s David vs. Goliath.

So, in honor of this year’s seasonal bball madness and underdogs, here are some inspirational thoughts and quotes to help motivate us in our daily business challenges.

"The secret is to have eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy." -Jerry Tarkanian 

"When it's played the way is supposed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, elevated above the floor, levitating the way oppressed peoples of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams." -John Edgar Wideman

"I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot... when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result." -Michael Jordan

"The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move." -John Wooden

“Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath.” -Wilt Chamberlain

“When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.” -Larry Bird

“Basketball is like photography, if you don't focus, all you have is the negative.” -Dan Frisby 

 “If the NBA were on channel 5 and a bunch of frogs making love were on channel 4, I'd watch the frogs, even if they were coming in fuzzy.” -Bobby Knight

"Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team"  -Scottie Pippen

“Confidence is a lot of this game or any game. If you don’t think you can win, you won’t.” -Jerry West

"There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet, and put the darn ball in the basket." -Abe Lemons

“We have a great bunch of outside shooters. Unfortunately, all our games are played indoors.”

-Weldon Drew

 “I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.” -Shaquille O'Neal

"Some things you just can't question. Like you can't question why two plus two is four. So don't question it, don't try to look it up. I don't know who made it, all I know is it was put in my head that two plus two is four. So certain things happen. Why does it rain? Why am I so sexy? I don't know." -Shaquille O'Neal

"These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it." - Charles Barkley

 "The first time I shot the hook, I was in fourth grade, and I was about five feet eight inches tall. I put the ball up and felt totally at ease with the shot. I was completely confident it would go in. I've been shooting it ever since." -Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

 "I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing." -Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

 "One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team." -Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“I couldn’t imagine not playing basketball. To me, basketball is what life is all about.” -Bill Walton

“I haven’t been able to slam dunk for the past five years. Or, for the thirty-eight years before that, either.” -Dave Barry

“There is absolutely no way the best team in the NCAA could even dream of beating the worst team in the NBA? You’re talking about men vs. boys.” -Bill Walton

 “Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” -John Wooden 

Crowdsourcing without Sandra Bullock and Jesse James

I was at a social media presentation last night, on how to connect the dots between Twitter and sales.

The speaker went down the same road as so many do - you have to have a plan on what you're going to do in social media, then set objectives, then determine your measurements (followers-fans-conversions), then open up your Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/YouTube accounts and listen, learn, then engage.

She showed a couple examples of social media campaigns, one of them being the Ford Motor Company Fiesta campaign. Very successful, and the campaign has been referred to over and over in the press as a shining example of the power of social media.

It's a good story. For large companies with a healthy social media budget and a dedicated team. Yet I was wondering how many small businesses could relate to it.

And that was it, folks. Thanks for coming.

But then it got interesting, after the speaker's presentation was over. The host of the event, a public library, had their representative thank us for coming, and he mentioned his library had started getting involved in social medias last fall, but with a limited budget and no one specifically in charge of handling social media it had been a bit of a challenge. He asked that if anyone had any ideas to share they could send them to the library's Facebook or Twitter account.

And then the hands shot up, most of them from marketing people. One person after another (myself included) had an idea to share with him, beyond what the speaker presented. And there were some very creative ideas, tying in social media with real world events. Creating buzz for the library. The energy in the room rocketed. So many ideas kept coming people started chuckling. The library rep was pleasantly overwhelmed.

Crowdsourcing at its finest. Except it was in person instead of online.

And it was great. Blending online and offline ideas to create memorable customer experiences. The library rep wisely asked for a copy of all the suggestions. It demonstrated you don't need a big social media team or a big budget to generate solid ideas on getting customers to connect with you. A handful of passionate, seasoned people, thinking outside the Big 4 social media platforms, works fine.

I won't be surprised to see several of the ideas happen.

TV...A word in support of the anti-social medium

With all the talk about social media, many of us forget that a majority of Americans still spend more time watching TV than they do tweeting, facebooking, texting and e-mailing combined. This means that while Social Media plays a vital part in many marketing strategies, the TV commercial still remains a powerful tool.  At Atomic Ideas, we first determine who a client's best potential customers are and THEN determine the best channel(s) through which to reach those customers (to sell more stuff!). Of course that includes, when appropriate, Television.

Some TV statistics compiled by TV-Free America:

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.

 

 

I. FAMILY LIFE

Percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99

Number of TV sets in the average U.S. household: 2.24

Percentage of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets: 66

Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes

Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66

Number of hours of TV watched annually by Americans: 250 billion

Value of that time assuming an average wage of S5/hour: S1.25 trillion

Percentage of Americans who pay for cable TV: 56

Number of videos rented daily in the U.S.: 6 million

Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million

Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49

 

 

II CHILDREN

Approximate number of studies examining TV's effects on children: 4,000

Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful

conversation with their children: 3.5

Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70

Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children's TV watching: 73

Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV

and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54

Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours

Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500

 

 

III VIOLENCE

Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000

Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000

Percentage of Americans who believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem: 79

 

 

IV. COMMERCIALISM

Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000

Number of TV commercials seen by the average person by age 65: 2 million

Percentage of survey participants (1993) who said that TV commercials

aimed at children make them too materialistic: 92

Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1

Total spending by 100 leading TV advertisers in 1993: $15 billion

 

 

V. GENERAL

Percentage of local TV news broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30

Percentage devoted to stories about crime, disaster and war: 53.8

Percentage devoted to public service announcements: 0.7

Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59

Percentage who can name at least three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: 17

 

Compiled by TV-Free America

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Washington, DC 20036