Yaffe Tidbits

14 Fascinating Facts from Future Midwest

Besides the inspirations and new ways of looking at things, Future Midwest speakers throw out some very interesting statistics during their presentations. I thought it would be interesting to compile a few of them together. Here's some of the ones I heard at this year's conference.

 

 

1. Smartphone ownership will overtake feature phones by the third quarter this year.

2. 77% of consumers engage with brands online for incentives and ad offers.

3. 28% of consumers will provide an email address or engage with a brand online with promise of incentive.

4. Many online new businesses eliminate the middle man between consumers and the product/services they want.

5. The majority of colleges (85%) look at applicants info posted online (including social sites) before deciding to admit that student to their university.

6. 86% of iPad owners would prefer to put up with ads in order to get free content rather than paying a nominal monthly fee.

7. In Michigan, only 1.01% of the people are on twitter, compared to 47% on Facebook.

8. However, the ones who are on twitter have much larger followings/communities online than those just on Facebook.

9. Teens today send about 300 texts per month, but tend to make only three phone calls during that same time.

10. Over 700 billion minutes per month are spent on Facebook.

11. 70% of connected consumers have participated in a branded sweepstakes or contest.

12. The average consumer is exposed to over 3,000 messages per day

13. Email offers that have specific relevance to those receiving it get five times greater conversion rates than full list email blasts.

14. 47% of consumers consider their mobile devices to be essential to their lives and keep them within arms reach at most times.

There you have it, 14 fun facts I heard from the Future Midwest speakers this year. What other pieces of info did you hear that stuck with you?

Mike McClure, Playing digital trivia and #winning

Does "Buy Local" Only Apply to Your Locale?

After a fantastic quarter with a local client and watching its customer-base grow nationally, I've been thinking about what it means to "Buy Local." I should start by stating that I self-identify as a passionate Buy-Localista. I love both the economic and sentient value of purchasing things that were made as close to me and on as small of a scale as possible. If I could buy drier filters handmade in my neighbor's home, I would. 

But what then when our neighbor's burgeoning drier filter boutique grabs national attention? Aren't we proud of her? Don't we agree with the five hundred families in Santa Monica and 300 families in Austin who now order her product and sing her praises on Twitter? 

If the push to buy local is to keep local money circulating in our local economy, and we consider this concept at least quasi-political, does that mean we find the families in Santa Monica and Austin now putting money into our economy politically amoral? Does it make us hypocrites to valiantly encourage all of our neighbors to buy local, but also feel gratitude toward neighbors who are able to push their product beyond our boundaries? And what are those boundaries? City, county, state? What defines local?

I have thoughts on this, but would much rather hear yours.

 

Jen Wright is a Social Media Strategist who buys locally, but asks questions everywhere she goes.

 

 

#IWill: Under Armour Campaign Sells a Message Worth Buying

I often think about advertising on my morning runs. Not in a "things I have to do for clients today" sort of way, but in a mind-freeing, creative sort of way. Over the years, I've noticed that pushing past the logical part of my brain that's telling me "Stop—this hurts," allows me access to the illogical, endless possibilities part of my brain. Some call this the right brain. I've never found another way in other than pushing myself physical. It's like self-inflicted hazing to prove that I'm right-brain worthy and can hang in the logic-less terrain of the unbeaten path. I tend to think that territory is pretty valuable real estate, especially in the ad world. And on a interesting side note, I've also noticed that all my creative heroes practice some sort of body-bending activity and how it often seeps into their analogies and creative solutions, as seen here in one of my favorite Alex Bogusky posts. 

The ride gave me a lot of time to think and I came up with a plan.

This morning I was thinking of this particular ad.

I thought about how, since I saw it the first time earlier this week, I've added distance and speed to my runs. I thought about how I sought Under Armour out on Facebook and have been inspired to push even harder by the comments left by other women. I thought about how, though I've never been brand loyal in the running clothes arena, I've moved all my Under Armour clothes to the top of the drawer and will seek them out next time I buy. And not because I've been brain washed or seduced subconsciously, but because I wholeheartedly believe that we vote for the world we want with our dollars, and because I want to reward companies who vote for the world I believe in with their dollars. 

And though I'm fully aware that this is an ad, intended to make me to all the things I've listed above, that knowledge does not taint the experience. Why? Because they've aligned themselves with a message that both sides of my brain, the logical and the subconscious, want to buy. I'm not torn between what I believe and what I want. And when those two things come together, everyone involved moves forward.

This ad has tangibly shaped my life. I've run further and faster every morning. I've remembered why that pain is worth it. And I've seen that if I can align my clients with a message that doesn't make people choose between what they believe and what they want, then I will be selling something worth buying.

#IWill

Guest post by Jen Wright, a social media strategist who runs through Detroit daily. 

How Retailers Can Profit From Natural Holidays Like Memorial Day

Everyone expects there to be good deals on the "natural holidays" like Memorial Day. We've trained the consumer over the years that these are prime shopping times. They go out in large numbers to shop whenever there's a three or four day weekend holiday. But, if you're a retailer that doesn't mean you can just sit back and let them come to you. If you do, you could be missing out on a lot of sales. We're talking the difference between a good weekend and a "make your quarter" weekend here.

Yaffe has 'worked with a lot of retailers over the years. During that time we've amassed a lot of data, along with some good experience. The data shows time and time again that the more marketing channels you use, the stronger your presence and the more you give your customers, the better your weekend will be. Not just in gross numbers, but in profits and ROI, too.

Here's some tips we've learned over the years:

Give Your Customers More: Part of the reason consumers shop on the natural holidays is because they have the extra time to shop. But a big part of it is that they've learned from experience that many retailers give their best offers during these times. You need to make sure you're giving the public some of the best offers in your arsenal. You can bet your competition will be making their best offers, so you need to be out there with yours, too. It can be better financing, better overall savings, special deals on categories or individual items, free gifts or refreshments for customers who come in, early bird specials to get them in first or some other offer or combination of offers. 

Give Your Best Customers More: One thing our research and data has shown most strongly is that marketing to your best customers gets the best ROI, every time. In a natural holiday shopping frenzy, you want to make sure these customers feel special and have additional incentive to remain loyal. Send them a direct message through mail, email, social media or SMS and give them a little something more than what you're giving the general public. It will pay off nicely.

Maximize Your Share Of Voice: Whatever media you're in, especially TV, you should try and get the largest share of voice for your category in your markets. You can't just advertising at the same level you always do. Your competition will be stepping up their media buys, you need to at least keep even in share of voice by stepping up your buys. And if you can be the dominant player in your markets, it will give you a stronger position in the consumer's mind.

Do Multi-Channel Marketing: Add more channels to your marketing mix. If you don't normally do direct mail, email, texting, digital marketing or some other media - this is the time to add one or more to your mix. It will broaden your reach and increase the amount of touch points you have with your consumers.

On a side note, make sure your messaging is appropriate for the channel you're in. Here is a link to a web video we produced for one of our furniture retailer clients who does fairly aggressive TV on the holidays. It was embedded in an email message. On the web, you need to be more engaging than on broadcast TV (being a pull medium vs. a push one). So, the web video had a different tone than the TV, while still tying in with the overall campaign. The email told the rest of the story pertaining to sale and offers.

So, don't miss out. It's an old cliche but it's true: make sure you're fishing when the fish are biting. That way you won't go hungry.

Mike McClure, Yaffe Exec Creative Director

Can Foursquare Really Help Your Business?

There's a lot of talk these days about foursquare and other geolocation apps and services. Most marketers are excited about the possibilities to be able to connect with customers based on their proximity to your store or service. Many, however, wonder if they're worth it now. But, if you don't think Foursquare works for business, you haven't met me.

Foursquare combines geotagging your location with game qualities, like earning badges for certain accomplishments, becoming mayor of your favorite establishments (and ousting someone else in the process) or having the most points on your leader board. Critics say none of this matters. I'm living proof that it does.

I know it's kind of silly, but just last week some of us went to a new diner that opened up near our office. When I checked in there, I was the first one to do so and I added the venue to the foursquare database. That night I stopped at the wine shop near my home to pick up a few things. When I checked in, I was informed I had become the mayor of the shop. That made me mayor of 9 different places all at once. I knew there was a "Super Mayor" badge for being the mayor of 10 places. I also knew if I checked in again at the diner by my office, there was a good chance that would make my mayor there, too (you have to have at least two check-ins and have the most check-ins in the past 2 months to be mayor). So, I stopped there on my way to work the next morning and had breakfast, just so I could earn my Super Mayor's badge. That's a meal they wouldn't have sold, if I wasn't using foursquare.

I know it's not real prevalent social network yet, but it's growing in popularity very quickly. There are plenty of people like me out there who are going places because of what it does for them on foursquare. Others will follow these early adapters, as they are the trend-setters. Now, imagine if businesses were actually using foursquare to it's full potential and offering rewards or planning events around earning particular badges. Some are already. Starbucks has a special badge for checking in at 5 different Starbucks. Yep, I stopped at 5 different ones in the past few weeks to earn that badge too. (it's not like they're hard to find). But, without the incentive, I would have gone to Biggby Coffee or just waited and had the free coffee at the office.

The point is, forward thinking businesses are starting to figure out how to use this now. And they'll be ahead of the curve once the rest of the business world figures it out. We just finished a foursquare plan for one of our restaurant clients. It's not hard. Just takes a little knowledge and a little creativity to put something together that will tap into the tool as it is now, while positioning you for the geolocation and augmented reality rush to come later.

Mike K McClure. Yaffe Exec Creative Director & recent foursquare addict

Chevy's brilliant road trip to South by Southwest Conference

After a rather tumultuous time for American car makers, Chevy is doing something to engage the buzz makers of our time. And they're doing a rather good job of it. The annual South by Southwest(SXSW) conference is being held this month. It's an conference of innovation in interactive, music and film. It was at this conference that innovations like Twitter and FourSquare have been introduced in the past.

Leading up the interactive portion of the conference, Chevy is sponsoring road trips from eight different parts of the country to SXSW. They are providing the car and having a four[person team from each city's social media scene drive it to the conference. Along the way, they must complete as many of 50 challenges as they can, which were crowd-sourced out to the followings of each team. The Chevy social media team, headed by Chris Barger, then chose the 50 challenges from all those submitted. (They didn't use my "find a ugly bug from each state" suggestion - but then that would be hard here in Michigan). Each team also get points for how much their social media communities interact with them along the way. The prize for the winning team is that Chevy with throw an "epic tweetup" in the winner's city for their social media community. How much good will and online buzz is Chevy creating from this one social media promotion? It's huge. And it's spearheaded by the leaders in each community, the early adopters with lots of followers. I think it's a brilliant way to get your product and brand name out there and generate positive feelings.

I've been following Team Detroit all day today, which is the first day of the road trip. I'm friends with three of the four members of the team, through various local social media functions. They're all great people and are making following them a lot of fun. They've had a steady stream of photos, videos, tweets, Facebook comments, blogs and more as they've gone. The local community has responded with comments, retweets and more on a large scale. Now, maybe it's not like that in all the team's cities (last I looked Team Detroit had a commanding lead), but the buzz is pretty great. You can follow Team Detroit on the Twitter hashtag #DETChevySXSW or on Facebook. It's fun. I'd recommend it. But, in the end, I think it's Chevy who's the real winner.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director & Social Media Guy

In Dark Times, Find Your Sunshine

My dog is as dumb as a stump. But, there's one thing we all can learn from him, whether you're an individual or a company. You see, he understands what will make him warm and happy. On cold winter days, even if there's just a sliver of light coming through a crack in the blinds, he'll find it. And he'll lay there with sunshine falling on his face and have himself a little snooze. No matter how dark the house is, he'll find that little ray of sunshine and bask in it - even when it's just a little strip across his nose.

This concept is something that can work for you, too. What's your ray of sunshine? Is it your family? Your job? A hobby? A good book? Playing a Facebook game? Connecting with your online community? Whatever it is, use it to fend off the darkness whenever you feel it decending on you. The economy looks like it's poised to come back. But, it can't come back soon enough for some people. Maybe you had to take a job you don't like. Or you have bills that add up to more than you make. Don't let the darkness settle on you. Find that thing that makes you feel warm, safe and happy. Then embrace it. Even if you can only find time for a little bit of it, do what makes you happy whenever you can.

This goes for companies and brands, too. What makes your brand shine? What makes your employees feel good about working there? What does your company do that makes consumers feel good about you? Tap into those things and it will not only help your brand or company do well, it'll make all those associated with it feel good. This is why cause marketing, being green or being active in your constituents' online communities are important for companies these days. If you can make yourself and your customers feel good about what you're doing in these hard times, business will bloom when things lighten up.

Find your sunshine and bask in it. It does a body good!

Mike McClure, basking in that all-over Yaffe glow.

What Story Does Your Brand Tell?

"Your brand is all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build." That's what Todd Gentzel said over 10 years ago when he was putting together the foundation for Yaffe's brand consulting and corporate culture business. Today, that practice is thriving in our Houston office, where Todd and his team run it as part of Yaffe/Deutser's main offerings. And those words mean even more today than they did 10 years ago.

With digital, mobile and social media all becoming ways for consumers to connect with the brands they love, building relationships is all the rage today. It's talked about all over the place, in article, blogs, on Twitter, in podcasts, any media you can think of really. But I want to talk about the first part of Todd's statement. Because as you look at the really successful and innovative brands, it still is all about the stories you tell.

Online shoe company, Zappos is probably one of the biggest success stories of the digital era. It's a brand with fierce loyalty from customers and almost cult-like devotion from it's employees. Last year, Inc. Magazine wrote a long piece on Zapposand their CEO Tony Hsieh called The Zappos Way of Managing. It's a worthwhile read if you have a few minutes. Among the many things they discussed in the article was how devoted Hsieh is to happiness, both his customers' happiness and his employees' happiness. Part of that is his employees are empowered to make decisions on their own.

Hsieh tells the story of one employee that received a call from a woman trying to cancel a shoe order for her husband, who had just died. Not only did the employee cancel the order no problem, she sent a bouquet of flowers to the man's funeral, from Zappos. Not only is that woman a fan for life, she has a great story about the Zappos brand she tells often. So, do the 30 or 40 people who attended the funeral.

"Stories like these are being created every day, thousands and thousands of times," says Hsieh in the article. "It's just an example that if you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff follows."

In another article by The Harvard Business Review, A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture, they also talk about stories. In this case, they're talking about a company that wants to change their corporate culture even though they're very successful and profitable. When asked why the CEO relates their culture of work above all else by telling the story of an employee they told had to come in for a meeting with a client on her wedding day. She was told the meeting was early enough in the day that she would still have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding. The CEO was ashamed of the story, but yet it's one of the stories he tells about his brand. The consultant in the article then told the CEO, if he wanted to change his culture, he needed to change the stories they told. And he gave some pretty good examples.

Every day we work with clients on defining their brand and their corporate culture. There's a lot of research and technical stuff that goes into it. But, in the end, it really still is about all about the stories you tell and the relationships you build. What stories are you telling about your brand? Are they saying the things you want to be said about you? Or is it time to start creating new stories?

Mike McClure, Chief Storyteller

Is the bad economy or big competition killing regional chains?

Another good company, Snyder’s Drug Stores, announced a couple of weeks ago that it is closing. I know because we sent out the press releases. Each press release listed my name, Michael Morin, as the contact for more information. We do crisis management for our clients, but this is one you hope you never have to do – going out of business. It resulted in a grueling couple of days on the phone with radio, TV and newspaper people throughout Minnesota, the US and Canada.

The whole ordeal was physically draining. But, it was more than that; it was sad… really sad. Snyder’s was a vital part of the neighborhoods where they had stores. Some of the calls I got asked me where the local seniors were going to turn to for their prescriptions. Another call talked about how Snyder’s had been delivering prescriptions to a paraplegic veteran. Now, what was he going to do?

In most of the areas, Walgreens bought the prescription lists and will take care of those who were loyal Snyder’s customers. In many markets, Walgreens is even taking over the existing store and will convert it. But, some neighborhoods will be without. And the big national chains won’t deliver the kind of personal service that took care of a local vet who couldn’t make it to the store. Many people won’t have the trusted pharmacist they’ve had for years. It’s a sad story that’s told over and over these days as regional chains fall by the wayside.

So, how did this happen? Was it a product of the recession that has hit small to mid-size companies especially hard this last year? Or was it part of the trend this past decade with larger competitors gobbling up the smaller chains all across the country? We’ve seen this happen to many Yaffe & Company clients the past 10 years. Michigan based Perry Drug Stores, a Yaffe client, was bought out by Rite Aid and then their local competition Arbor Drugs was bought up by CVS.

Snyder’s Drug Stores were founded by Max Snyder in downtown Minneapolis in 1928 and grew to become a formidable player in the drugstore category with over 80 stores in the Twin Cities, plus dozens of franchise stores in many other states. A merger 8 years ago turned out to be a bad move, resulting in bankruptcy. Then, in the past five years, three big competitors (Walgreens, CVS and Target) opened 60 new pharmacies in the Twin Cities. So, the weakened Snyder’s now had to compete against the big national players who opened stores at all the best intersections.

So, if Snyder’s had been able to stay relevant, adapt and remain financially strong, would they have been able to overcome these obstacles? It’s hard to say. If they had been strong enough to weather the economic storm that was 2009, who’s to say they might not have still been bought out by one of the big players like so many regional chains before them. The end result would have been better for the Snyder’s people, but would have been the same for the neighborhoods who believed in their local drug store chain.

Small and mid-size chains are disappearing all over the place. Is it the economy, the homogenization of America, merger mania or some combination of all? I’d be interested in hearing what you think.

Michael Morin, EVP, Client Services

Email Marketing – A Great Way to Get More Customers

There are many ways to communicate with customers, but email is one of the most effective and yes, even cutting edge, ways available today. Not only can you use it to get people excited about your brand and your products, but it can be used to get more people into your store.

One of the keys to attracting customers is relevancy. Your email communications should be only be sent if they give people relevant information. If you have a great sale or a special offer that is only available to them, that is relevant and likely to elicit a response.

We send out email campaigns for our clients only when they have something worthwhile to say to their customers. Which is why many emails correspond with the bigger holiday offers, because that's when we really have something of value for the customer. In fact, we usually email the segment that represents the best customers and offer them something above and beyond the public offer. So, with most of our emails, we are giving the customer a reason to come in and buy now. Most customers appreciate it when you let them know there is going to be a great deal, especially if it's on something they want.

Another key is frequency. You have to be careful not to send too many emails. No matter how relevant your message is, if you overload the customer's in-box, they will start to ignore you. So, you need to keep increasing your email list so you can have larger numbers with each email. That's why it's so important for retailers to develop methods of collecting email addresses from their customers.

Email marketing is also very cost-effective. The cost associated with emailing all of these people is low per person, but can add up. However, the revenue generated is proportionally higher, creating very good ROI (return on investment).Over the past year, for one of our retail furniture clients, we sent out just over 4-million emails to their best customers. of the people that were emailed, about 4500 came into the store and purchased. Since this past April, these email customers have spent of $4-million on new furnishings.

Combining media is also very effective. We see dramatically increased response rates when we email people who have already received a direct mail piece for our major sales events. Adding video to the emails, creating an "Advercast" has raised revenues even further, creating at least a 34% lift in sales.

Customers want to know what ways you offer them to save money on the things they want and they want to know that you care about them.

If you address them with respect, give them relevant information and great value - communicated in a format they respond to - you can lock them in as long-time customers.

Lauren Cavanagh, Account Coordinator