May « 2011 « Return On Focus --- http://returnonfocus.com --- Return On Focus

Accepting Your Ad Dollars Doesn’t Mean Bloggers Accept You and Your Brand

May 20, 2011

Accepting Your Ad Dollars Doesn’t Mean Bloggers Accept You and Your Brand

Filed under: Marketing Effectiveness,Patient Marketing,Social Media,What We Think — Tags: , — dreinhardt @ 11:36 am

In 2007 when ROF ran it first consumer opinion leader (COL) engagement project, it took guts for our Client to convince senior management that patients could eventually have a status similar to KOLs. Now it’s all the rage and it’s getting difficult to tell who in this industry actually understands how to effectively work with COLs.

I see lot’s of ‘drive-by COL engagement’ where folks delude themselves into thinking that they are “working” with key bloggers in a community simply because the have display media and/or text links running on their sites. Quite to the contrary, the actual relationship is practically non-existent.

Take a look at the disclaimer on a top COL site that accepts advertising:

  • “Due to the high cost of maintaining this site, [Blogger] does accept advertising. Occasionally, ads personally screened by me may appear below the content section. They will be clearly indicated. Additionally, this site uses advertising services such as Google and others. I have a limited amount of control over that content, but I make every attempt to insure that is appropriate. The ads are distinguished by the word “Advertisement.” [Blogger] is free from any commercial influence on the content portions of the site.”

Do you really think you’re developing a relationship with COLs in your disease state simply by running an ad buy? Many of these key influentials don’t think so. Why should you?

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May 13, 2011

I know the destination but not how to get there. Why today’s brand planning is like my GPS.

Filed under: Marketing Effectiveness,Patient Marketing,Professional Marketing,What We Think — Tags: — dreinhardt @ 11:04 am

Remember the days before you had a GPS unit, you actually knew how to get from Point A to Point B with a map. More importantly, you actually knew how roads connected with one another, the nuisances of the streets (i.e., one way), and understood how to decipher highways signs, like knowing federal highways that are even numbers run east/west and odd run north/south. (Umm, did anyone else forget that?) Most importantly, you were aware of your surroundings and hypersensitive to stimuli as you went on your way. You might have even turned off your radio as you got closer to pay more attention.

With the GPS unit, we now only plug in the destination and pay little attention to how we actually get there. Today’s brand planning process reminds me of the GPS analogy. The complex and often convoluted planning process with its numerous templates and forms has taken all the thinking, instinct, and context out of the equation. You know the destination – gold standard, increased market share, etc – but you have little idea of the route to take to reach it.

You’ve heard news stories, I’m sure, of drivers aimlessly following their GPS to their own peril. Is your brand planning process setting you up for the same, just not so public, fate?

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May 6, 2011

Do your Experts Practice What They Preach?

Filed under: Marketing Effectiveness,What We Think — Tags: , , , — amanning @ 11:09 am

Over the past couple of years, I have taken up cycling. For anyone who has recently developed a new hobby, you know that each interest comes with its own tools and equipment, and these can be costly. When I was purchasing my first road bike, I not only researched the bikes, but the bike shops in my area. I wanted to be sure that I got advice from people who not only read about the bikes, but people who actually rode them and knew how they handled in real word conditions.

This may seem like a common sense approach, but we are finding that our clients are often taking strategic advice from partners who do not practice what they preach.
For instance, who is helping to create the social media and online strategies for your brand or organization?

  • Are they tweeting or blogging on a regular basis?

  • Do they discuss how they optimize their own site based on deep insights from Google Analytics?
  • Does your Account or Strategic Lead actively participate in any of these activities?

If not, how can they advise you on what works, what tools are best, and how to staff for the time commitment involved?

If your agency’s website is built using the latest technologies but cannot be viewed properly within your corporate browser, perhaps they should not be leading your brand user experience analysis. And if your partner’s own CRM strategy consists of nothing more than an annual holiday eCard, perhaps you should seek outside counsel when creating your brand CRM strategy.

Outside of work, you wouldn’t buy a bike from someone who doesn’t ride, and you wouldn’t take skiing lessons from someone who did not ski. So why take marketing advice from marketers who aren’t successfully marketing themselves?

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