Marketing in the age of transparency

Sometimes marketing people are so smart that they outsmart themselves. I'm often asked for my opinion on ways to communicate with readers. I'll tell these marketers--don't try to fool them. Don't masquerade advertising fluff for real information. People will download a vendor white paper and read it if it contains useful information. But, I say, be transparent. But if you entice them to download something that contains no real engineering information, just marketing buzz words, they'll never come back.

But some marketers are so sure of themselves. Many still think that readers are stupid and that you can masquerade your marketing as objective, vetted content. What's the saying? "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." And today, word travels quickly.

Take note of this post by Peter Shankman. "This past week, Groupon got into a world of trouble for offering a Groupon to FTD that essentially saved no money at all. Instead, they suggested that FTD raise their prices, so that the Groupon would bring the price down to normal. People would buy, FTD would make money, and no one would be any the wiser.

"Except of course, for the fact that Groupon and FTD were exposed. They were caught lying, and of course, both sides denied, then when the facts truly came out, apologized. Both Groupon’s and FTD’s reputation took a pretty decent sized hit. How could this all have been avoided?

"By not lying to begin with."

Or--a piece of valuable personal advice:

"There’s a reason I rarely drink anymore. It’s too easy to tweet a bad joke to a hundred thousand people at 2 in the morning after five Vodka Martinis. At 7am the next morning, that’s not going to seem so funny."

Read the entire piece, but here's the conclusion:

"We need to be smarter. Start by being smarter yourself. Surround yourself with smarter people. Work for smarter companies. Heck, even be the person who brings the smarter to the company where you work, letting them know they won’t have a company if the practices they’re doing continue.

"Nowadays, it’s only a matter of time."

I'm starting to see stuff cropping up in lots of magazine sites and newsletters. If it were me, I'd rather be transparent and proud of what I'd done. Treat readers with respect and give them credit for intelligence.

Avoid Automation PR Wall of Shame

It's January 31. Do you know where your New Year's Resolutions are? Gone? Time to dream about what you'll do in 2012 already?

(I don't do them anymore. There are a few lifestyle changes I envision--improve fitness and drop some weight, for example--but I don't write down a list of resolutions. I just have a vision of where I'm going.)

Last week was another one of those "visit the office" weeks. That means very little work gets done as I spend time in meetings. Late nights and early morning meetings ruin my discipline.

Readers of this blog come from a variety of professions and backgrounds. Some of you are marketers. I know my friend Walt Boyes sometimes posts to his "PR Wall of Shame." Well, how would you like to be on the PR Wall of Shame of a blog that reaches something like a million readers? Someone hit a nerve with TechCrunch recently.

It's a problem we face in our niche, too--press releases that appear to have information, but don't in reality. In this case, a company's PR people sent a release saying the company grew by x%. Well, percentages tell nothing. A percent is a ratio--it doesn't have context. We get these all the time. Analyst firms are especially good at this. If there is no number or context, then it's really worthless information.

Please, give the readers something. They know when it's just general promotion without meaning. Readers are smart people. They're hungry for meat, don't give them a Twinkie.

I've written on marketing before--for example try this Marketing 101 piece.

Marketing Tips from Jack Lalane

Seth Godin draws marketing and brand management tips from the career of the man who started the fitness industry.

Accounting, Marketing and Sludge

Well, manufacturing and production hit the news again. I saw pictures from Hungary this morning of the red sludge from an alumina plant flooding the streets of a town. The social consequences of our actions while pursuing our profession can be enormous. It pays to stop and think occasionally about the consequences of our decisions.

Somehow the powers within the company where I first learned manufacturing annointed me as an unofficial cost accountant. They gave me books to read, courses to study and practical experience. I just thank God that I was never officially an accountant. Lean guru Bill Waddell recently did a marathon speaking tour on Lean and has been writing about his experiences. In this post to his blog Evolving Excellence, he rants about management reliance upon financial accounting and its reliance on GAAP when that is really meant for investors and not for actually managing a plant. Worth a read.

Here is a new marketing blog, Stupid Marketing Tricks (he should have plenty of material). I've known Ted Wodoslawsky for more than 10 years. We've had some engaging dinner conversations. He has been at Rockwell and ABB. This should be an interesting read.

One final thought--politics. The aforementioned Bill Waddell has finally seen the light. In Republican Jabberwocky, he has figured out it's better to look at the words and record of a politician and not just party ties. He cites the Republican Senator from Kentucky who figures that outsourcing jobs actually creates American jobs. Hmmm?

Ah, What's In a Name

High Fructose Corn Syrup by anyother name would taste just as sweet.

(Sorry, Bill)