Social Triggers Provides Marketing Insights Based on Academic Research

Derek Halpern is the author of the popular Social Triggers website which provides insights on marketing and business based on academic studies. He is also creating great content on the Social Triggers YouTube channel.

After following Derek for a while, I was stunned when he revealed on his CreativeLive course that he is an introvert and sometimes won't leave his apartment for days. In this video he shares how he went from having no confidence in himself to becoming one of the most confident people you will ever meet.

Fantastic's Delite-o-matic Delights Customers

This is a creative marketing stunt by the cookie company Fantastic. They placed a machine that gives out free cookies if you press the button a specified number of times or bow in worship. One person pressed the button 10,000 times to get the cookies. Pat Flynn points out that this shows how far people will go to get something for free.

H/T Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income Podcast.

The Myth of the Slimy Marketer

The public perception of marketers is poor. If random people were asked to describe the characteristics of a marketer they might use words like manipulative, greedy, materialistic, egotistical, unethical, and evil. It hasn't helped that one of the most popular shows of the past few years is about the egotistical, demanding, and slick talking advertising man, Don Draper. According to a recent Gallop Poll, only 11% of people rated the honesty and ethical standards of advertising practitioners as very high or high. The only two professions that were lower were members of congress and car salespeople.

In a recent online workshop taught by Josh Kaufman for the site CreativeLive, he pointed out that marketers can not force people to buy things that they don't want. He went on to say that one of the fastest ways to lose a million dollars is to try to advertise a product on television that people don't want.

To borrow an idea from a great commencement speech by Harvard Professor Deepak Malhotra, the role of marketers is to create value.

Peter Drucker famously said: "Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two -- and only two -- basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business."

Marketers conduct customer research to find out what problems people have or what people want and then they work with designers and engineers to create products that make people's lives better. Marketers help consumers find out about great products by getting the word out to people who have a matching need or want. Marketers also create intangible value for a product through brands that results in real value for customers. An Omega watch (the top choice of international super spy James Bond) provides significantly more value than a generic brand watch made of the same material, although it doesn't tell time any better.

Marketing provides some negative consequences like pollution and waste, however it also create tons of value for society. So instead of thinking of marketers as mass manipulators, maybe a better description is that marketers are mass value creators.

Google Glass Ban is a Brilliant Marketing Move

The banning of Google Glass before it is even released by a small Seattle bar is one of the best PR moves I have seen. After releasing a statement on their blog, they have been mentioned by dozens of news sites including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNET, and the Washington Times and attracted tons of attention.

 From the Wall Street Journal:

Now comes news that a Seattle bar is banning customers from wearing Google’s head-mounted smartphone. The 5 Point Cafe posted a message on its blog declaring that the bar would be a “No Google Glass zone”: If you’re one of the few who are planning on going out and spending your savings on Google Glasses – what will for sure be a new fad for the fanny-pack wearing never removing your bluetooth headset wearing crowd – plan on removing them before you enter The 5 Point. . . . . .

Although they may lose out on some customers who are tech early adopters in Seattle, it is smart from a marketing perspective to communicate that their bar doesn't cater to everyone but a specific type of customer who is looking for privacy and doesn't like technology.

According to the owner of the bar, “First you have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place. People want to go there and be not known … and definitely don’t want to be secretly filmed or videotaped and immediately put on the Internet.”

The 5 Point Bar wants to communicate a brand message of being a private and seedy place. Although they run the risk of being associated as an anti-technology establishment, that label is aligned with their brand. What do you think? Is it wise for them to take this stance?

Creative Commons photo by Dennis Crowley

8 Resources for Learning About Retargeting

Retargeting: What It Is & How to Use It SEOMoz
-You can target visitors who have visited a specific part of your site.
-Showing an ad too often can be counterproductive.

5 Tips for Running a Successful Retargeting Campaign (video) SEOMoz
-You can target people who have visited a certain part of your site.
-7-12 times for month is an ideal frequency of banner impressions.
-Rotate ads so they don't always see the same ad.

The Top 5 Retargeting Best Practices PPC Associates
-Monitor Twitter for complaints about the frequency of your ads.
-Not every visitor should be targeted the same way. Look for cart abandoners.

Comparing the Top 4 Retargeting Companies SEOMoz
-Retargeter provides great service but their pricing is aggressive.
-Adroll has a self-service platform and no minimum spend (SEOMoz uses Adroll).
-You should play in site retargeting before trying search retargeting.
-Chango is the only end to end solution.

Search Retargeting: 4 Tips To Use Recency To Drive Performance Search Engine Land
-Start campaigns with the longest recency window possible and refine the window over time.

Remarketing Is Now Simpler SEOptimise
-Keep audience duration to a reasonable amount of time.
-Use a frequency cap.

5 Simple Steps To Stop Wasting Budget With Poor Retargeting Search Engine Land
-Search retargeting allows you to target prospects who have searched for a specific keyword in Google or Bing.

2 Pay Per Click Tactics that start making you money right away Lean Marketing
-Since you are buying ads on any site your prior visitors go, the ad inventory may be cheaper.

Creative Commons photo Mark Sebastian