The Story

If you haven’t noticed yet, I like to ask “why?” A lot. About everything. I think it’s healthy to question our traditions, standard approaches, and all the stuff we take for granted.

One thing that’s been under my skin lately is the standard, boring, traditional and ridiculously predictable language many people use on the phone. For instance, I betcha I can recite, with 95% accuracy, the outgoing voice mail message of at least 10 people you know. Here goes:

“Hello, you’ve reached __________. I’m either on the phone or away from my desk. Please leave your name, number and a brief message, and I’ll return your call at my earliest convenience.”

Snore. Isn’t there a slightly more interesting, memorable, and human way to say that? Of course there is.

On a similar note, I recently had a phone “conversation” (I use that term loosely) that went like this:

Jeff: Hi, I’m calling for Bob, please.
Drone: And your name is……
Jeff: Jeff Stephens
Drone: And your company is…..?
Jeff: CBC. Is Bob even at this office?
Drone: I’m not at liberty to divulge that information.

Seriously? Who uses phrases like “I’m not at liberty to divulge that information?” Who asks questions using fill-in-the-blank phrasing without a verbal question mark?!

The sad takeaway from this? You can differentiate yourself by simply being REAL. Not being a robot. By asking “why do I have to say this the same way as everyone else?” Here’s a fun experiment: make a commitment to never answer the phone the same way twice, all day long. Or record a new and different voicemail message every day, that goes away from the standard syntax of the message. Try your hardest to sound like you can fog a mirror.

I’m sending a $10 Starbucks card to the person who comments on this post with the coolest proposed voicemail message. Bring it on!

You’ve probably heard of MoneyAisle by now from several tech/ business publications and blogs like Netbanker. The service has been up for about a month, and just recently received a further $7 million in funding from several investors. MoneyAisle, owned by NeoSaej, is an online auction site where banks compete to offer the best rate on your CD or high-yield savings account. Essentially, as Edward Woods, a senior analyst at Celent puts it, “It’s Priceline for bank products.”

Obviously, this is great for consumers, but I’d like to concentrate on how helpful it is for small and mid- sized banks. These financial institutions don’t have the advertising budgets to compete with big banks, meaning that they have a harder time reaching consumers outside of their local market. So how does MoneyAisle help? Well, first of all, as Mukesh Chatter (CEO of NeoSaej) puts it, “Our platform is completely seller-neutral - large banks have no advantage over smaller community banks.” The company’s ad-free business model means that banks cannot influence results through advertising. Instead, they compete purely on rates, and MoneyAisle gets a small cut when a bank gains a customer through the auction. Because small and mid- sized banks forgo having to spend on advertising, they can pass along the savings to consumers in the form of higher rates.

State bankers associations, realizing what a boon this could be for their member institutions, have started endorsing MoneyAisle. The Michigan Bankers Association (MBA) recently formed a strategic alliance with MoneyAisle in an effort to introduce more member banks to the MoneyAisle network. It’s a win-win for both organizations - enabling banks to reach more potential customers and enlarging the auction site’s network. It will also be a plus for consumers, since increased competition on the site should lead to better rates for shoppers.

However, I have a couple questions:

1) Are credit unions going to become part of the network? Are there any regulations to restrict this?

2) How willing is a consumer to open a savings account or CD with a small community bank that is located far away and has no physical presence in that consumer’s area? How good does the rate have to be to outweigh this drawback? (obviously this differs person to person.)

3) Can or do online banks compete in MoneyAisle auctions? (Their lower overhead costs often mean better rates on savings accounts.)

As advertisers, we are always thinking of new ideas for marketing to different parts of the community. There are all kinds of categories in which people can be bunched: male, female, parent, cyclist, automobile owner, dog owner, couch potato, active, young, experienced and so forth. Many of these qualities overlap and finding the right tactic to spark interest is important, not only to relay the message, but keep the audience remembering it.

I am bringing this up because Monday I left work and walked to my bicycle to find a re-usable shopping bag hung on my handle bars sitting in my front basket. Printed on it was all the information I needed to know, “PORTLAND STAND, UP, OUT AND FOR SUSTAINABILITY, JULY 12, 2008, NOON-4PM PIONEER SQUARE” with a small KEEN Footwear logo.

I was immediately intrigued! Success! Whomever came up with the guerrilla marketing strategy and research that said, “bicyclist will probably be interested in this, because they are already highly likely to be interested in sustainability,” was spot on. Not only did I get a free re-usable shopping bag, but I will be using it on a weekly basis reminding me (and those around me) of the company KEEN even after the event, KEEN Stand Festival, is over. This is valuable multi-purpose advertising. The bag also pushed me find out more, and to blog about the event to friends, family and you all. Guerrilla marketing is the most valuable of its kind; it is proven to be the most effective form of generating word of mouth and getting a message out into the community.

Cheers!

Being one of the biggest fans of the critically acclaimed movie, “Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory” (the original with Gene Wilder of course), I was immediately drawn to a recent blog post on innonate.com about using a Golden Ticket marketing tactic for product promotion and personal brand building. The man behind this non-traditional marketing scheme is Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV, a daily internet webcast on the subject of wine, and author of 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World.

In this particular example of “Golden Ticket” marketing, Gary goes into a Border’s bookstore, finds his book and leaves a surprise message for the buyer of his book, which is his personal email address and a secret code to redeem a prize. I thought this was a great way to measure ROI on a non-traditional marketing tactic. Not only does this prove Gary’s personal branding story, but it also directly engages his audience and furthermore, entices them with mystery as an incentive to contact him to redeem their “prize.” (And, let’s not forget that he leaves a hand-written message)

Measuring ROI on non-traditional marketing can be tricky and sometimes nearly impossible, so when I read about Gary Vaynerchuk’s style of guerrilla marketing, I was inspired to create more innovative measuring tools!

Embrace Failure
Don’t be afraid of failure, it’s part of the creative process. Platform2: Art and Social Engagement, launched the Failure Support Group, an open forum to discuss failure and it’s relationship to art and production. Guests were invited to share 5 minute presentations about their failures and then discuss them with others.

On a related note: the great thing about guerrilla marketing is that if your campaign fails, the financial blow isn’t nearly as great as with traditional advertising. (That, and your overall chances of failure with guerrilla are much less.)

Renaming Cambridge
The Institute for Infinitely Small Things has launched a project called The City Formerly Known as Cambridge. At 13 different events, The Institute offered Cambridge, MA residents the opportunity to rename streets, neighborhoods, squares and parks in their town. Institute workers then analyzed the collected date and produced a new map of The City Formerly Known As Cambridge, MA.

Community Calendar
A neighborhood grocery store in Copenhagen, Denmark is selling community calendars that contain photographs of local residents, ads from local retail stores, and coupons offering special discounts to calendar owners in the week the ad is appearing. The calendar is published by Danish company Verdens Mindste Bladhus, (The World’s Smallest Publishing House). Something similar to this would be an awfully good marketing piece for smaller banks and credit unions that tout themselves as “community-oriented”, (re-surfacing the idea of going beyond lip-service to prove your story).

There are so many amazing guerrilla marketing innovations out there. Sometimes they exist solely to get people thinking. The fact is that regardless of the purpose, guerrilla will be noticed. Guerrilla works. It’s easy to share, memorable, and generates talk. So take a look at some of these ideas and think, what point do I want to make to the public and how can I get my message out there?

I’ve Lived – New York City
New York artist and designer Candy Chang is changing her city for the better. Here she transforms a retail window into a space for residents to share with each other how much they pay for rent. Candy says: “It’s a question every New Yorker wonders – how much is my neighbor paying for their apartment?” The installation empowers residents to be informed about how their rent compares to others in their community.

Lost and Found
Illegal Art is a collaboration of artists in New York whose goal is to create interactive public art that makes people think. Here, they set up a city-wide 1-800 number for the public to “Listen to What Others Have Lost ” and “Listen to What Others Have Found”.

Racist Parking
In 2006, Dutch artist Helmut Smits created Parking for White Cars Only, a temporary art project where the best spaces in a public parking garage were accessible only to white cars. This, along with the majority of Smits’ public artwork, acts as social commentary and asks the audience to stop and think.

I came across a quote recently that made me think. Ken Simms, Avidia Bank’s senior vice president of marketing, was quoted in the Worcester Business Journal in reference to his bank’s recent name change following a merger. He said:

“You don’t want a long, involved name, or a name that doesn’t readily come to mind when people are looking for you online.”

I’d like to respectfully disagree–at least with the first part–and provide a proposed correction.

I don’t think the problem is a long, involved name. I think the problem is, rather, a boring name. Ridiculously un-stimulating, sleep-inducing, don’t-care-if-I-mispronounce-it-because-it’s-so-brutally-devoid-of-personality names.

See, the problem isn’t the length of the name…it’s how memorable it is. How remarkable it is. If it’s worth the energy to even TRY to remember it. Yes, if your name is Southern States Valley Community Federal Credit Union, that’s bad (btw, I just made that name up…it’s not a real example). And it’s long. But it’s length isn’t the problem. The problem is that nobody will get that name right because it’s not worth TRYING to get right.

Also in the article, a representative from the firm that worked with the new Avidia in its naming process, said “A bad name can actually be a barrier for a business. What a good name will do … is it will be a gateway rather than a barrier.” I agree with him on that point. But please don’t get the impression that a good name is good because it’s short. I’d argue that a good name is good because it’s:

–worth remembering
–unique
–closely reflects the brand’s personality

You can accomplish all those attributes with a long name.

Thanks to Jeffry Pilcher on his The Financial Brand blog for the topic.

Earlier this month, to address all the rumors and speculation, White House hopeful Barack Obama launched the “Fight the Smears” Website in an innovative attempt to protect his personal brand.

Not too shabby, Mr. Politician. Way to not only realize you are a brand, but extra props to you for knowing you’ve got to feed that brand and protect it. Plus, you get extra points for having a “Spread the Word” button under each “Truth” that empowers your audience to get involved in protecting that brand. Giving them the ability to easily share information spurs talk about the website and Obama. Voila, word of mouth marketing at its best.

(It seems the democratic candidate has been reading Andy Sernovitz’s blog: “The online conversation has already started. People are talking about you. LOTS of people are talking about you. There is no way to protect or promote your brand unless you join the conversation.”)

Often times to explain what a brand is, we CBC’ers say they’re a lot like people. Well, this man Barack Obama is a lot like a brand.

For more on brand Barack, check out Fast Company’s article, The Brand Called Obama

Hey Barack, what do you say we tag-team a brand discovery session sometime?

Greetings from the newest member of CBC! I’ve recently stumbled upon a fun site called WebUrbanist.com an “urban design, culture, travel architecture and alternative art” website. While perusing the headlines I came across a style of Guerrilla Marketing called Shopdropping or Droplifting. The names are so delicious I can’t stand it. Here is how WebUrbanist defines it:

“Shopdropping, also known as droplifting, is the incredible act of reverse shoplifting: going into stores and putting things onto the shelves.”

There seem to be many reasons to Droplift, but whether it is for artistic amusement, political or social awareness, self-promotion or artistic expression, it is sure to be noticed by the consumer.

Mixed Messages: a shop dropping intervention

It’s this brand of unique message delivery that stands out in the consumer mind, regardless of the daily bombardment of traditional billboard, television or radio advertising. Financial institutions should consider pursuing this non-traditional marketing technique. After all, at the store consumers are constantly thinking about money and what they can afford. It’s brilliant!

brass is the magazine about young adults and money. Fresher than Forbes or Fortune, this publication targets Gen-Y with articles, interviews, and statistics that are relevant for them. Not only is the content original – so is the marketing. At brass, they know that the under-30 crowd doesn’t respond well to flat ads, without also being engaged through an experience or connection – which is why they asked an 18-year old high school student to record a theme song for the company.

Bryan Sims – CEO of brass|MEDIA Inc. - met the talented teenager while speaking to New York high school students as part of the brass|STUDENT PROGRAM. The student, Ray Blackwell, was trying to get his own music label up and running by reading investing books and saving 50% of his minimum-wage paycheck to invest. In other words, he was the embodiment of the brass brand – young, entrepreneurial, and driven – the type of person that magazine’s readers would connect with.

Bryan suggested that he would pay Ray to create a song for brass. With the help of his mom and brother, Ray recorded a sample song that completely embodies what the company is all about. Bryan and the folks at brass were so impressed that they hired TICE Records to produce the full track, and put together this video containing lyrics for the song.

What does this say about brass? For one, they understand how to use non-traditional marketing. The song and video will complement the brand experience people have in print, online, and in person. More importantly though, it shows that the brass knows how to connect with its audience. By shining the spotlight on a young person readers can relate to, the magazine demonstrates that it is in touch with its readership’s financial situation and their goals in life. And all that for the cost of a single page ad.