A URL (uniform resource locator) is arguably the most important part of your online marketing and branding.  It’s your business card, an ongoing advertisement and the doorway to your company all in one. If it can, it should be the name of your company or an abbreviation, if it can’t be either of these it should be able it should sum up your service or draw interest at the very least. Choosing it isn’t always easy though, especially when you have to be clever (groan). We’re a couple decades into this internet thing and there are several million websites, some of the best names for service providers, distributors or products have been taken long ago by companies themselves or by opportunists who buy up domain names and sit on them waiting for the highest bidder. But often times these names will expire, and many business owners don’t think to check when that will be. Hunt for the perfect URL and get the right extension for your site. If you have to wait for one to come open it can often times be worth it. Or if you can use a similar name without risking copyright infringement, and use a top level domain extension this is also smart. Search sites like www.godaddy.com or www.whois.net to see when a domain name is going to expire and keep in mind that over the past several years new domain extensions have been opened up to the public; with this comes opportunities and risks however. Take for example Uk.co. While many sites, most sites, in the UK have the .uk.co extension a .co extension would be the top level domain for the country of Columbia.

The extension .cm remains one of the most popular extensions for scam sites and spreaders of malware; it’s the country code top level domain (ccTDL) of Cameroon. So make sure you put that o in your .com! Some commonly used TLDs that have become specific to industries are in fact country code top level domains (ccTLD), these are referred to as vanity ccTLDs. The increasingly common .tv extension is in fact a ccTLD for the island nation of  Tuvalu but it is used for the television (“TV”) / entertainment industry. The country code extension for the Federated States of Micronesia is .fm and is frequently used by FM radio stations. Businesses in Los Angeles have become fond of using the .la extension, which is in fact the ccTDL of Laos. So before you give up on your dream URL because .com or .net is taken don’t be afraid to look at the alternatives, but be aware that some extensions can have negative associations, such as .cm or .cn (China) China is apparently looking at ways to crack down on abuse of its ccTDL by cyber scammers. In a way that’s incredibly hypocritical though isn’t it?

On top of country codes which have been used as vanity domain extensions there were several extensions offered in the early 2000s. Some of these have been successful while others have fizzled. Growing out of the the  generic top-level domains which originally consisted of  GOV, EDU, COM, MIL, ORG, and NET,  several new domain extensions became available. Four of the new TLDs (.biz, .info, .name, and .pro) are unsponsored, meaning they are less stringent as to who can claim them. The other three new TLDs released along with them (.aero, .coop, and .museum) were sponsored. Then again in 2003, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) the body responsible for overseeing and regulating domains introduced six new TLDs (.asia, .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .tel and .travel) these TLD extension were sponsored, as are .edu and .gov etc. Meaning there is a body of regulators that oversees authenticity of those claiming to belong in these domains or wanting inclusion in them. Someone homeschooling their kids in small town USA will not likely be approved for a .edu domain name, reserved for colleges and universities,  while a survivalist militia group in middle of nowhere USA will also likely not be given a .mil extension no matter how militant they may become. That is reserved for official military only. But hey, you can always try.

So before you go out looking for a URL with .ca or .net or .com know that there are dozens of extensions available now and more to come. the Dot Eco domain .eco has been slowly simmering for the past couple of years and once made available to the public (if you your company is an environmentally responsible or sustainable operation) this domain extension could be invaluable to you. Visit here for more info on this domain extension. Some domain extensions may fit your business better than others, and they are an extremely important decision for any company to make. For more information of TLDs or Generic Top Level Domains visit here. To contact Thirdi go here.

The recent discovery of water on the moon is one of the most exciting scientific discoveries since humanity began exploration of outer space. It captured headlines around the world with its broad implications but any child of the information age would be anything but shocked to hear that it was all part of an elaborate marketing ploy- maybe a NASA/George Lucas collaboration to hype up the release of a new toy line, or Coca Cola for a new brand of sports water.  It’s not, but I’d be surprised  if anyone read the title of this blog and didn’t think  “Hmph, I should’ve known”.

In the 1960s French social theorist Guy Debord wrote the Society of the Spectacle, in which he essentially tore a strip off of post ww2 western culture as being wholly fixated on a series of spectacles in which any form of reality (in the sense of meaningful discourse over how to live together) is replaced by these glamorous or shocking distractions as spoon fed to us by the media’s talking heads. It is the cheapening of society through totalitarian control of social discourse through media. And even now 40 years later we would rather fixate on Balloon Boy for a week instead of looking to the dark and broken parts of humanity that need the most attention.  Ariana Huffington goes off about this in one of her most recent blogs.  The media coverage of “balloon-boy” is an example of how major news still focuses on the pedantic details of singularly  exploitable and wholly inconsequential stories. Elian Gonzales, Tonya Harding, OJ Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, Magic Johnson, the list goes on and on of singular stories in which one person creates a spectacle through some ridiculously stupid or careless action they take or statement they make- usually leading to death, deportation, disease or incarceration. Meanwhile the real issues that we should be focused on are made into silhouettes deep in the back of our minds. The spectacle shines too brightly. Often times, like sails catching trade winds, the marketing execs will capitalize on mass fixation. It is a large focus of human mental energy that is hard not to want to tap into.

So even in the spectacle of this Lunar discovery exists the seeds of marketing, maybe even the fresh spring buds of marketing. The Moon is exciting again!  President Obama is reconsidering which direction to take NASA in, so the timing of this discovery couldn’t be better. The Moon, which had been recently considered to be waning in value, was in risk of being supplanted by Mars or the asteroid belt as the new budget would dictate. In this case, the recent spectacle may have served those who have put their life’s work into researching the moon and perhaps justify funding on space research in general.  In essence it markets the value of lunar research to both Obama and to taxpayers. It’s great timing for UBC, the Vancouver university fielded the only Canadian team in  a recent NASA robotics competition focused on lunar excavation. The squad came 6th out of 24 and performed impressively- maybe showing that regardless of what Obama’s NASA budget dictates there will still be scientists and engineers keen to explore the lunar surface.

So  was the rocket splash all a ploy by some in NASA who wanted the agency’s mandate to continue focusing on the Moon?  I don’t honestly think so, but it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t make a strong case for those in the agency keen to continue this lunar research at a time when the future of NASA is being seriously reexamined. If anything it highlights two valuable things about marketing. It’s not just about taking up time and space. Effective marketing happens at the right time in the right place.

Hopefully it won’t take crashing a rocket into the moon to give your business some needed exposure though.

I didn’t know this but apparently some people still think social media is a fad. There’s no link to those people in the previous sentence because they don’t own computers and are thus unable to voice their opinion online. In fact, the population of Facebook has now outpaced that of the entire U.S. and one of the most noticeable areas of growth is in PR and Marketing firms. But even more interesting is the entrance of the intelligence industry into the mix. Not to be lazy but I’m going to insert a block quote from Noah Shachtman of Wired who originally reported on the CIA and social media earlier this week:

“In-Q-Tel,the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.”

In essence they want the chatter and at this point mostly foreign chatter. There is no intention of focusing on domestic social media activity according to In-Q-Tel spokesman Donald Tighe. Within the din of social media there are trends that will appear and there are feelings or sentiments that may surface before we/they even realize as a culture that they are there. Knowing this gives the U.S. government and the CIA valuable insight into social or cultural thresholds (meaning how palpable current operations that may have blowback are to the public) as well as our general collective psyche. It will offer an “early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,” in the words of Tighe-who charminlgy refers to the CIA as Spooks in the Wired article. And for what direct purpose the CIA needs to gather this can be speculated on ad nauseum, beyond the fact that it’s their job to know everything. I doubt it’s for job performance reviews alone, least of all from foreign citizens. The agency will also be looking for signals that could forewarn of impending criminal or terrorist activity one could assume. Though at this point it has been expressly for foreign chatter, the CIA can also use the technology to turn its efforts inwards, gauging the domestic chatter if it wanted to.

To those of you who are paranoid about the CIA knowing everything about you, don’t worry. The technology is not being used to monitor Facebook or domestic social media yet, but most marketing firms already have every bit of information possible on you. They’ve probably grown a clone of you in a genetic marketing lab and are doing outlandish experiments on your clone brain to figure out how to win your consumer confidence and brand loyalty. I’d be more concerned about the large marketing firms than the intelligence community, they’re far more voracious.

Marketing is something that companies can spend millions, and millions of dollars on. Take Bank of America, who recently launched the new marketing strategy for Merrill Lynch- one of the many companies impacted profoundly by the financial sector apocalypse this past year and the ensuing market turbulence through the recession. Bank of America, who recently bought Merrill Lynch this past January, is spending $20-million dollars to market the company and rebuild its Wealth Management brand, in what we all hope is the tail of this recession (and the start of a comeback). Being that a whole lot of people flat-out lost much of their wealth over the past year, it’s not hard to understand how even a massive wealth management brand could suffer. But in many cases, your small business may not have the full backing of the Bank of America to reposition its brand in anticipation of a market recovery. So let’s look at another brand, one that’s used roughly the amount that Bank of America execs will spend on lunch with their clients any given Friday to create their buzz.

‘Paranormal Activity‘ A shoestring budget horror film recently released in the U.S. was originally slated to be re-made into a big budget horror film; but test screenings of the low-budge version were so well received that Paramount decided to take the Blair Witch route again. When a film lacks a major star, big production budget or some other marketing draw, it has to get by on its wits. So Paranormal Activity was released in select theatres for midnight screenings only- and in American University/College towns at that. Turns out the psychological imprint of low-budget paranormal horror films on stoned college students produces rabid brand loyalty. The studio has gone even further by creating a supply and demand call to action culture around the movie. If you live in a city where the film is not playing, you can vote and encourage others to vote to have it released there too. A call to action is one of the most crucial components of marketing strategies, but they have become increasingly obvious to ad savvy consumers. So new and innovative calls to action need to be employed by companies- this is one of the first time a call to action marketing strategy has been employed in film in this way. 

So these are two examples of diametrically opposed marketing approaches. One appeals to overwhelmingly (if not purely) rational insterests while the other appeals to those who want to experience a primarily emotional experience- or product. One spends a lot of money to reach their audience through “official marketing channels” while the other goes the exact opposite route, opting for the internet and scary midnight-screening word of mouth buzz. Had either gone the opposite route their marketing plans may have been disasters. Can you imagine Bank of America launching a shoestring budget midnight ad campaign in select theatres with a terrifying premise to shock viewers? I frankly would love it- being someone who appreciates the absurd. But really, this would miss the mark. Conversely, a low budget film like Paranormal Activity runs the risk of losing credibility if it adopted a big budget marketing strategy.

So these are good examples of how marketing is in itself a continuum. You benefit from understanding where you stand in that continuum and that location is where you begin to form your dialogue with the potential and existent consumer. It becomes the position from which you engage in discourse with competitors, and cooperation with mutually beneficial allies; it is rarely fixed. Depending on your industry, your product or your service, you can move vertically or horizontally in that continuum. So as a small, medium or large company- whether you’re a Vancouver business marketing yourself in BC  (yes that link gives you marketing clues despite what you may think on first glance) or a company with global reach, it’s important to see yourself objectively in regards to this kind of continuum- and from there decide what kind of marketing strategy best suits your brand, your product, your customer and your position.

Alliances are crucial to leveraging your brand and to sourcing new markets. Co-branding is the use of two or more brands on any single product. Like the laptop I’m using for example. It’s a Dell but it also has an Intel and MS Windows decal on it- this increases its usability from a customer point of view because familiar and trusted brands are leveraging the overall product by lending their names; One for processing speed and the other for its operating system and various programs. I see them all together and I am easily pursuaded that I’m getting a complete package, everything I need is right here.

Cross marketing is something used often by movies and fast food chains, allthough sometimes this can be a brand licensing arrangement as well. The difference is that in cross marketing a film (Shrek 8 let’s say) will include say, McDonalds in its trailers, promotional materials or product placement in the film, while McDonalds will release Shrek 8 collectors editions of movie themed cups and toys and so on. Mike Myers would have to appear at a certain amount of McDonalds locations to promote Shrek 8 and McDonalds may share ad time costs with the producers of the film. If a fast food chain were to simply buy the rights to use an image or brand, say Shrek 8 once again, they would simply pay the film company or producer (whoever owned the rights) the fee to use images from that brand. This is an important decision though for the purveyors of all things Shrek in this case, because they don’t want to place themselves in an inappropriate market where their brand signals may be distorted. If we started seeing Shrek merchandise at Morton’s Steak House, it wouldn’t be hitting the primary or even secondary market (kids, and adults with low IQs) and it could create confusion about the film’s content or intended audience. It wouldn’t benefit Morton’s either if your glass of wine came in a Shreck 8-themed metal goblet. You might feel like you were at Chuck E Cheese right? And you’re an important business man goddamnit! SO it’s an important decision, it’s a scientific decision. Because marketing is both an art and a science. Which is why when the giant Asteroid is about to hit the planet, or the alien invasion begins and we’re deciding who to take to the secret space station to maintain the human race- it will be mostly marketing execs and creatives. Because marketing execs and creatives are both scientists and artists, and it’s most efficient to take people who are both as opposed to people who are only one or the other.

What is marketing? Why do we have it? How does it work?

Marketing is essentially everything a customer sees, hears, tastes and experiences concerning your company. It’s your image, your message, your service or product itself, it’s your employees and it’s the feelings a client or customer experiences when and after choosing you. So how long has the industry of marketing been around? Some would say as long as we’ve been producing and trading, but more accurately marketing as an art, and a science, really began forming in tandem with the industrial revolution; when we began to create things on a large scale that went beyond the most basic needs. Today’s markets have become saturated, meaning we have to be extremely competitive in virtually every sector or region we open a business in. No matter what the product or service, out of the six billion people on this planet, someone is competing with you, someone had the same idea and someone has a similar business. So all things being equal (which I acknowledge they rarely if ever are) marketing will make or break one of them. What do you do?

Know your market, know it intimately; who your customers are and where they are is naturally important, but sometimes when they are is also crucial. Some services are more in demand certain times of the year, like accountants in tax season for example. Psychologists and psychiatrists see more patients coming in the winter, when the weather turns dark and cold, personal trainers and gyms see a spike in clientele and interest right after new years and just before summer. So knowing when your customers are can be crucial when forming a campaign or maximizing your marketing budget.

Maintaining a database of customers, clients, and referrals and tracking sales activity are also necessary steps to seeing the larger picture and where you fit in it. Almost like an old magic eye puzzle you’ll begin to see patterns, you’ll begin to see similarities and you’ll begin to see opportunities. And get feedback! Feedback from customers is crucial to understanding how your image and how your service is perceived by those who have experienced it firsthand. So no matter what you do, ask your clients once in a while. “If there is one thing you think we could do better, or something you think we do especially well, what would it be?” The answers can often be surprising and unexpected. Some companies prefer to do the asking anonymously, some companies prefer not to. It’s up to your discretion- neither way is better than the other but in themselves says something about your company. Social media platforms and software apps have created a constant feedback mechanism for companies to use. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, in the chaos of cyberspace, it’s the best way to remain plugged in to the consumer’s perceptions of your product and service and make any necessary adjustments.

Price yourself accordingly. One of the worst decisions companies in high end markets make in desperation is to decrease prices. This is a concession, a sign of trouble. If you have to decrease prices, you’re decreasing the perceived value of your service and in effect decreasing your brand. Before you decrease your prices scour your business model for inefficiencies and clear some overhead from your back end. Maximize and minimize until every aspect of your company is just lean muscle mass- no fat. Inefficiencies are toxic, just like real body fat is toxic. They will slow you down and make you look unattractive. Seriously, stay lean. Stay attractive, and keep your prices and value high. Make a profit.

See you at the yacht club!

Marketing has traditionally been viewed by the masses as either something invasive and annoying (Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!) or something subversively cunning; subliminal messages in ads, or capitalizing on primal sexual or aggressive urges for example. But that’s only if what’s being marketed to you isn’t what you want. Because when it’s something you want, something you value, advertising and marketing are welcomed and appreciated.

Marketing is of course not just advertisements. It’s customer relations management, it’s creating alliances with producers and firms whom you can share a strategic partnership with; leveraging each other with your brand compatibility, it’s the way your service is presented and even conducted. The way your employees answer the phone, and the little logo and slogan at the tail of your e-mail messages. But let’s get back to the first issue we had with marketing, invasiveness. Relentless proliferation of your message will no doubt land on many deaf ears, but with proper placement of your materials, and proper venues and mediums for your message, you can hope to increase those odds. But what if we lived in a world where we chose exactly what we wanted advertised and marketed to us? That world is increasingly becoming our reality.  This year Google introduced “interest-based” advertising on their partner sites and on Youtube. This takes into account your web browsing preferences as cached in your browser history and cookies and then selects advertisements only relative to what you most commonly view or look for. In addition to this the user can narrow down further what kinds of advertisements they want to see using this Google service. The product is still in beta mode but has been well received, especially by me.

RSS feeds are another similar example of interest-based advertising. Companies are increasingly adding RSS feeds to their sites to keep customers updated of any new promotions or products as leading marketing firms like Forrester continue to stress the value of RSS feeds as a marketing tool. The cost effectiveness of these new marketing techniques, by reaching receptive markets for a fraction of traditional and outdated methods, makes them very attractive for those concerned about the bottom line. If only the cable providers would offer a similar interest-based advertising service. HINT. I’m not going to buy a shamwow CBC! OK?

Today’s blog is all about marketing. Specifically the marketing of services, because many of the things we buy online, software platforms, shopping carts, ecommerce solutions, site management, server management, are often more services than products. Marketing is that area where psychology, geography, economics and business all collide in your head. The trick is whether or not the consumer sees value in that mashed up chimera and chooses to buy in. The A-Team sums marketing up for me and so I’ve chosen them to illustrate my point. Everytime I saw the intro to the A-team I understood implicitly the value of their unique service. And though I had problems and it seemed no one could help, I tried to find the A-team but couldn’t. Their marketing message and brand was nearly perfect, but when one link is missing (finding the service) the whole chain is weakened. This is a short list of some tried and true basic values one can keep in mind when deciding how to market your service or services.

1. Be clear. Don’t mix you message. Even though you may in fact have several talents (like the members of the A-team) and offer several services, find a way to sum it up and express it as simply as possible. And do it in a way that instantly invokes value to the consumer. AKA the brand. The brand is the banner under which your services exist and it sums them up for you. Watch the A-team intro again to see what I mean.

2. Know your consumer. You can’t swing wildly in the dark or go wandering into a crowd singing the praises of your wares. This is where the geography aspect comes into play. More and more we are seeing location based social media apps developed and received with accolades. This is because we don’t live our entire lives online. We are people in a physical world who occasionally need to go for a beer or sushi, buy a new tennis racket (the one with the right feel) or meet someone for coffee nearby. And while it may seem simple and elementary to mention this, being able to create consumer gravity based on your proximity to potential clients is still extremely important. While e-commerce has increased and will continue to, the internet at large still facilitates real world transactions. Know where your customers are and make sure they know where you are! This unfortunately is where the A-team failed me in my customer experience.

3. Create and instill perceived value! If you’re a service provider your customer will often be purchasing your service, or committing to a contract for your services before they have received full terms. This means they’re basically paying up front- and as economic theory is concerned we consistently display time preference when considering purchases. It is crucial to ingrain in your marketing message the value of your service in real-world terms. What makes you and your service special? What makes it the best? Why will it make life and business easier for them? Though it might be obvious to you it might not be to potential customers. The theory of comparative advantage says that in every situation you will have some advantage in regards to your relationship with competitors and partners. Find yours and utilize it! Just like the A-team did.

Well that concludes our tutorial for today. For more ideas send us an e-mail, we’d love to chat.

Facebook just released a new tool. It won’t make life any better for their users, but it does aid in their ongoing quest to turn social networks into money. Now, I don’t begrudge them the desire to monetize their product, but this new thing does feel just a little bit corporate shill-y. It’s called the “Fan Box”, and it allows companies, bands, brands, products or whoever to display part of their Facebook Fan page on their own private website.

Say you’re Coke, for example. Somehow, you’ve convinced approximately 3,490,336 Facebook users to sign up as Fans, and publicly declare that they love a cold, refreshing cola so much that they want the whole world to know it. Now, with the “Fan Box”, Coke can display a little bit of their Facebook Fan page on their own website. Visitors to their site can see how many people are Coke fans and who they are, while also having the opportunity to add their own name to the list. If they do sign up, they’ll receive updates from Coke, allowing them to be the first on their block to know when Hickory Bacon Coke finally hits the marketplace.

From a marketing perspective, the Fan Box is a goldmine. It creates a synergy (sorry for using that word) between their social network and their corporate site, by allowing each to feed the other information and traffic. It doesn’t do much for the average Facebook citizen, but then it’s not a tool that’s targetted at them anyway.