Archive for Thoughts

March 7, 2011
By Simren Deogun
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in Thoughts

C’mon Marketing World, Find Me Some Integrity!

Don't tell me about Charlie Sheen. Do not talk to me about foolish world records or incoherent messaging or ill-planned and ill-fated marketing.

I don't care.

I struggle with having empathy for those who have so much and yet give so little. It's not just about celebrities being struck down by the jaws of fame, drugs and misfortune. For me, it's about the constant struggle of being human and humane.

To give so much and yet receive so little in return. Is this not the life of the impoverished? Of the sick and hungry? Of even the non-profits who stand up to protect these people?

As our culture becomes more of a do-it-yourself, everyone-is-an-expert, turnkey digital marketplace, I ask -- what do marketers do anyway?

I'm officially declaring this a marketing epidemic! And yet, I choose integrity, sincerity, and trust.

Yeah, sure, it's sappy. But emotion equals impact. Impact equals results.

So, what do marketers do? We give you a voice and an identity, and we transform it all into results. Find me some integrity, I know it's out there!

January 30, 2011
By Simren Deogun
1 Comment
in Business, Lessons Learned, Thoughts

Five Lessons For All Marketers

1. Listen -- Online or offline. Books, blogs, newspapers, magazines. Tweets, posts, statuses, locations. Your eyes and ears should always be open. I believe the best marketers in the world never stop "marketing" -- that is, they never stop looking, absorbing and analyzing. Always learning, because marketing is not something that can simply be learnt in a finite period of time. No, it and you evolve together into something more complex and beautiful everyday.

2. Ask -- Why? Or How? Or any question under the sun that enters your mind. I always have a lot of questions to ask, and I love asking them. They don't just have to be the intellectually-challenging, mind-bending kind of questions, they can be the simple ones too. Like, How is that going to affect our client's bottom line? vs. How do we get our audience to care and become advocates?

3. Understand your Audience -- Don't just know them: who they are and where they live and what they buy. If you can understand them, know what truly motivates them, then you can begin to think like them. All the data in the world can tell you every measurable and quantifiable fact about your audience, but it cannot calculate the intangible properties that ultimately make them who they are. That is something that cannot be bought. But it is something you can learn and listen for.

4. Experiment -- Never stop trying new things. Your audience isn't going to stop, so why should you?

5. Be Fearful and Fearless -- From your strategy to your writing to your design to your execution. Always be simultaneously afraid and not afraid at all. Fear of failure, of sub-par results, of below-average performance drives us to be better and to motivate others to do the same. I am always afraid, but I'm also just fearless enough to not let that fear stop me.

Being a marketer is tough stuff. It's also underrated and often where the money gets cut first. If you're a marketer, you will most likely have to live your career constantly proving you and your team are the heart of the organization. That's part of the challenge of marketing. But if you're not, then think about who has a pulse on your organization, internal and external, and ask yourself if you're allowing them to beat as mightily and ferociously as they can.

January 3, 2011
By Simren Deogun
1 Comment
in Business, Thoughts

Did Your 2010 Marketing Predictions Come True?

In January 2010, I made my first set of predictions on what the year would hold for the 'wonderful world of marketing' (a la Disney!). Read my 2010 predictions post here.

I wanted to take this opportunity to review how wrong I was -- and in some instances right!

2010 Prediction Review

1. Social Media Integration
VERDICT: True
WHAT HAPPENED: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube. Now add Foursquare, mobile applications, QR codes and Groupon. Marketing campaigns strived to integrate across the board digitally.
FUTURE: Is 2011 the year when businesses start taking social media seriously?

2. Social Media Failure
VERICT: False (Somewhat)
WHAT HAPPENED: Facebook grew exponentially by being the most visited site on the Internet passing Google, fuelled by the widespread adoption of Login and Like Buttons, reaching over 500 million users, and the introduction of Single Sign-on. Twitter continued to hold steady with increased funding, an influx of 100 millions users in 2010 and a new interface. LinkedIn remains a constant in the social media game, and quite depressingly added a 'Share' button. Foursquare -- the biggest trend (dare I say) of the year -- looks like it might just flop after all.
FUTURE: Will anyone really care about LBS-based apps? Will Twitter be able to sustain its social viability for another 12 months?

3. The Next Google
VERDICT: False (Maybe a bit early for this prediction)
WHAT HAPPENED: Launch of Google Instant. Launch of the Google eBookstore. Facebook became more 'popular' than Google. Chrome continues to rule. Buzz and Wave fall flat.
FUTURE: Is Google becoming too big? Is Google too diversified?

4. Content Ownership
VERDICT: False (Too early again)
WHAT HAPPENED: Web 2.0, though ancient in digital years, is still a learning curve for many. With social media as the major distraction of 2010, content licensing never became a real legal concern. And then there is the prickly issue of what kind of content -- blog, video, social, etc.
FUTURE: Will it take until Web 3.0 to push for stricter content regulations online?

5. Mobile Marketing
VERDICT: True
WHAT HAPPENED: Apple stays in strong contention with its massive media-hog, iPhone 4, survives Antennagate, goes ape for iAds and revolutionizes yet another market with iPad. Google's Android beats iPhone in growth and hits it big with HTC and Samsung. BlackBerry goes Torch with lacklustre results but keeps interest piqued with PlayBook announcement. Oh, and Microsoft releases Windows Phone 7.
FUTURE: As mobile continues to grow, how will marketers use this new platform to reach their audience outside of display ads?

6. Conversation Conversion
VERDICT: True
WHAT HAPPENED: Have a look at number 1 and 2. Social media integration was big and it will continue to grow, businesses became savvier with tracking and measuring and they will continue to get savvier, and marketers worked to capture data and keep the conversation going even after a visitor hit their landing page.
FUTURE: How will marketers respond to the overwhelming demands of social media and keep the conversation simple and relevant?

7. Video and, of course, YouTube
VERDICT: True
WHAT HAPPENED: YouTube is THE place for video and has become synonymous with viral. Viral is not something you can strategize and you certainly shouldn't try. Everyone loves video and they REALLY loved YouTube in 2010 with over 700 Billion videos viewed!
FUTURE: Will YouTube streamline its advertising options? Can the YouTube Brand channel become more flexible to marketers (think Facebook Pages and Apps)?

8. AdWords are Dead
VERDICT: False
WHAT HAPPENED: AdWords is the word in online advertising. Brand integrity, loyalty and first-entry advantage. 2010 did not dispel any of this.
FUTURE: Will Facebook ads become a more viable, easier-to-use and more fruitful alternative to Google's AdWords?

9. Traditional Marketing Continues to Endure A Painful Death
VERDICT: True & False
WHAT HAPPENED: Publishing continues to suffer, as do Print ads what with carrying a heftier price tag when compared to digital offerings. TV, Radio, Direct and the like continue on ... though perhaps on eggshells.
FUTURE: Can 'integration' of online and offline truly be the overarching marketing theme for 2011?

10. Web 3.0
VERDICT: False
WHAT HAPPENED: Web 2.0 lives on with the help of social media.
FUTURE: Maybe 2012, 2015 or 2020. "Web 3.0 is coming around the mountain ... Web 3.0 will be trying to make the web personal period. Personified by the ongoing, never-ending conversation between customer and provider, the intelligence of the web, and the ultimate in personalization and customization."

What do you think 2011 be like?

September 9, 2010
By Simren Deogun
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in Lessons Learned, Thoughts

The Truth About Frustrated Marketers

Sometimes, I'm a frustrated marketer. Sometimes, the whole 'seeing the forest for the tress' just isn't a good enough analogy to get me through the day. Sometimes, I just want to scream at the top of my lungs. I can blame it on the environment or the people or myself, but I know I shouldn't be blaming anyone or anything at all. So, what IS the truth about the 'frustrated marketer'?

The truth is: we always want more than we have right now. We always want it to be more exciting, more challenging, more engaging, more connected. There is no conceivable limit to great ideas, to great talent, to brainstorming, to making mistakes, to growing, to getting better. There is never enough! And that leaves us frustrated.

Godin said a couple days ago, "If you want to learn to do marketing...then do marketing."

Brogan said a few days ago, "The best compliment I ever receive about my blog is that my posts are short, simple, and actionable."

And Mitch Joel told us that, "I preferred to be on death's door of desperation than take a job that I knew I was going to hate...."

What do they all have in common? Besides being written by international marketing geniuses, they exemplify the vastness and prismatic quality of marketing. That it's probably true no two marketers are the same, much like our own fingerprints or DNA. And I think because of that we always want more ... actually, we probably need it more than anything.

I call my blog home because it lets me be a marketer my way. And I believe all marketers (or at least the one's that really, earnestly care) can't live without the individuality to be their own marketer. They make the conscious choice to differentiate, to take risks, to fail and to achieve.

What can you do to be that marketer?

Care to the point that if you were without it, breathing would become nonessential.
Take chances as though failure is no gigantic consequence, but merely an oft-feared but hardly ever revered occurrence.
Read, listen, or write. Pick the one (or more) that helps you grow and learn.
Humble yourself.
And accept that frustration is a necessary evil that only plagues you because you are one marketer that refuses to stop ___________________. [Fill in the blank with what fits best for you!]

July 6, 2010
By Simren Deogun
No comment
in Business, Thoughts

I Have A Tired Brain

And so do you. I'm not trying to offend you. Honest.

Our brains are saturated, overexposed, goldfish, marketing nightmares. But you've heard this before. Too much information, all thrown at us right now, and if you missed it then you lose, and if you caught it then you're so-three-seconds-ago when you began reading this sentence.

But my take is that even though we're more tired than ever before, we're also smarter. I need to have faith in you. Because you have exactly what I need: the intelligent prowess to understand me, and that is most important of all.

When that brain of ours feels a little weary and a little overloaded, it's not just going to take flash, pep and jazz to move us off of our ergonomic office chair. Instead, we'll respond to intelligence, wit and insight.

So, why don't I tell you something you may not know, in a way you may not have seen, and then ask you to do something for me in return. Visit a url. Call a phone number. Fill out a survey. Cut out a coupon.

And when we get really cozy with one another, I'll give you something bigger, something intangible so that you will do something big for me. I transfer the knowledge. Make you an advocate. Being an advocate gives you immeasurable power. And we create a long-lasting bond.

June 27, 2010
By Simren Deogun
No comment
in Business, Thoughts

How Do You Market Cars In A Green World?

Continuing on my recent Green kick [see previous post on environmentalism and consumerism], I've been thinking more and more about the automobile.

With timely documentaries such as Who Killed the Electric Car? and Suzuki's series, The Nature of Things, the gasoline-powered car is no doubt a major villain against Mother Earth, alongside oil cartels and mankind, of course!

So, I pose myself (and, you) the following question: How do we market cars in a world becoming increasingly concerned with Greenism yet consistently concerned with price?

From Ford's Model T to Nissan's Leaf, a drastic shift in buyer perception, power, and overall market sentiment has taken place. In his time, Ford had unearthed a growing societal need for mobility while simultaneously offering a streamlined solution. Long gone are the days of assembly-line, one-colour options. But, in contrast, are the days for ultra environmentally-friendly vehicles now, today? Or are we not ready yet?

The market alongside the consumer continue to evolve. But the idea of the economical car is far too perfect to dissolve -- price is king! And with the inclusion of luxury-trim stylings in low-cost models, car companies are laughing as they continue to win on the basis of simple economics.

Whether you're looking for cost-effectiveness, luxury, size or looks, I think the message to the market in each of these categories is pliable enough even in the face of environmental concerns. And again, the story is everything. Maybe yours is of the working parent with kids or the college student with a part-time job or the high-rolling millionaire CEO! The story is designed to appeal to you, whoever you are, and that's where creative marketing in the auto industry enters the picture.

Zoom-zoom. Drive one. Das Auto. The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection. These are just off the top of my head. Can you identify any? Better yet, do you identify with any? Because these taglines are powerful assets in helping carve out a specific audience with a specific desire.

And through all of this, the green advocates and environmentalists are not completely forgotten with many hybrid options available and with, hopefully, full electric alternatives also on the horizon.

What do you think? How much does being green factor into your car purchase decision? And, if the price was right, would you choose electric over gas?

June 20, 2010
By Simren Deogun
2 Comments
in Business, Thoughts

When Did Green Become More Than Just A Colour?

Type "green" into Google, and you'll get a firm understanding of how deeply rooted the new "green" has become.

Not just a colour. But a politics. A party. A movement for the environmental world.

And to the right appear sponsored ads to protect the environment and safeguard your home. Green is no longer a hard-to-reach and even harder-to-understand abstract concept. It's in your living room, heating your house, lighting up your chandelier, and fuelling your car.

Also, Green is not just for the 21st century hippie, but for the well-rounded, health-minded, socially-conscious every-person. And industry leaders (alongside marketing mavens) are making it easier to fall into the latter category by making green ubiquitous.

Procter & Gamble's Future Friendly. Apple's "A Green Apple". UPS' right turns over left turns save fuel. And a host of dreamt-up green labels and "certifications". These are just a few examples of some of the big steps being taken by profit-driven conglomerates to spearhead greenism.

It's no surprise that there is a whole other side to this movement that centers on my world, the marketing world. Taking steps to be green as a company as well as offering green products and services is a strong, smart differentiating marketing strategy. As consumers become more knowledgeable about environmental threats and how being "green" can make a positive impact, their inherent inclination is to opt for goods and services which match that ideology.

But what's the tradeoff? Often, it's price. Green goods bear the heavier price burden over their value-marked but less green alternatives. So, green comes at a premium, no surprise. But in 2010, we are closing in on the precipice of the green movement, where green becomes mainstream and -- ideally -- drives down cost. Numerous reports and studies show that price is the biggest barrier to going green, so I ask, who is going to make a big splash and make green affordable?

And let's not forget that Green is also money -- not just to the consumer but to the CEOs and CMOs. Slowly, as the market moves towards saturation where close to 100% of viable companies exercise green adoption, the differentiating impact of being green will diminish. But the strength of choosing an all-natural, good-for-the-environment product over one that contains trace amounts of death and destruction is marketing heaven.

Green is the perfect murder. Easy to sell to the top, highly profitable, proactive, healthy, and brand-building. You really going to let price stand in the way?

June 16, 2010
By Simren Deogun
3 Comments
in Thoughts

You Are Your Own Marketer

I want this post to have the most eye-catching, most reader-intriguing title. I want its subject matter to be compelling and helpful. I want the writing to be fluid and a little bit off-the-wall.

I guess, though, what I truly want, isn't as superficial as the above. It's about understanding how you think, how you function.

When you wake up in the morning, what's the first thought that enters your mind?

When you walk into work or school, do you feel nervous, excited, dreadful?

Are you a scatterbrain? Over-thinker? Organizer? Socialite? Leader?

Who are you?

If I, as a marketer and, more importantly, a human being, can even begin to just barely scratch the surface of you then I'm making progress.

And that's all I desire. Progression. Forward movement. Forward thinking. Hope. Anticipation. Success. But none of this can be possible without you.

No marketer is a marketer without a consumer. No company is so without its employees. No success is worthwhile without believers to share it with.

So, I keep writing. I keep trying to understand you. And to even better understand myself. Because if there is anything I hope you can take away from my blog, it is that you are your own marketer, your own force to succeed.

Your message is valuable. Your voice, unstoppable. Your skill, immeasurable. Do what you do with purpose, and I promise to do the same.

June 10, 2010
By Simren Deogun
2 Comments
in Business, Digital, Thoughts

Google Slowly Introduces Chrome OS To The Masses

Well, at least in my opinion. In a very Bing-esque styling, Google has atypically changed its design approach to an option that will undoubtedly be compared to their biggest competitor.

So, what's the reason, Google? My guess is that with Google's Chrome OS on the verge of release, the great Google geniuses are giving us a taste of what it might feel like. Without Microsoft, without a desktop, without all those PC (and Mac!) familiarities, Google has to bridge the gap.

Step one seems to be to introduce the "wallpaper" to Google -- thereby transforming your Google homepage into a desktop (or into a desktop-like experience!).

Now, you can customize your Google experience, just like you can currently customize your PC or Mac experience, but, of course, without all the burdens that come with bloated operating systems, such as applications and features you don't even need. This will most certainly be Google's future pitch for its shiny, new OS!

Does Google's new homepage enhance your experience or is it just another web-based distraction? It is smart, though, I will contend. As almost everything from Google is. Even when we doubt Google's zany new offerings in the beginning, as we did with Gmail and are now doing with Buzz, Google has consistently outwitted our skepticism. The geniuses are testing the waters, sharks abound. For me, I have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude for the wallpaper, but, for the masses, I predict it will grow to be a fan-favourite!

May 16, 2010
By Simren Deogun
1 Comment
in Business, Thoughts

Hardship And Heartache: Why Emotion Matters In Marketing

Marketing is every definition you'll find in a textbook. Every single linear explanation of good/service, want/need, and satisfaction. But making marketing matter, making marketing powerful must come from a deeper place.

In any environment, under any circumstance, my work as a marketer matters to me. I care about it, all of it. No word, no colour, no decision exists without a little bit of me inside of it. Many will say this is foolish. Business is business, right? It's not personal. For me, that's where the real foolishness resides.

Take a moment to ponder the great successes of our time (marketing and otherwise). Do you not think those products and successes were personal? Making your work personal, instilling emotion, when necessary, is a means to success.

When that end product is not just a derivative of tasked work created from monotonous thoughts and movements, it holds you inside of it. And because it holds you, it also holds your emotions -- passion, praise, weakness and strength. And emotion is powerful.

As marketing moves away from interruptive strategies and towards compelling storytelling, marketers will rely more and more on emotion. On evoking a particular emotional response from the recipient of the marketing message. It's because that emotional response weaves a bond. A bond which can lead to a purchase, to loyalty, to advocacy.

Gates, Jobs, Page and Brin -- some of the geniuses of our time -- channel the hardship and heartache they are forced to endure into positive emotion -- because when it matters to you, the marketer, there's a greater chance it will matter to you, the consumer.

April 13, 2010
By Simren Deogun
No comment
in Business, Thoughts

Intention to Create, Sell And Buy

Intent -- the act of doing something with a specific purpose -- consolidates the marketer and the consumer. These predetermined roles become transferrable. The marketer leaves work, walks into a mall and is transformed into a consumer. The consumer leaves work, receives some communication or makes a purchase, and becomes a marketer outfitted with the power of voice and opinion.

Intention is action and direction with a desired outcome already perceived. Intent must be possessed by the marketer and created for the consumer.

These are my 3 tiers of intent:

Intent to Create
The organization's or marketer's decision to develop something new, something different and/or something revisited.

The intent to create does not need to be solely based in originality. But rather, what is original for the specific circumstance and situation of the organization in question. As simple an idea as a webinar, if never produced by an organization before, is a nugget of the intent to create.

How much easier it always is to say rather than do. But intent must demand action, so that action can demand result. A webinar is just a word, just an idea until someone owns the intent to create.

Intent to Sell
The organization's or marketer's decision to sell, for profit or not, a good or service with perceived value for the consumer.

The development, nurture and creation of an idea is not a prerequisite to the intent to sell. On the other hand, the intent to create need not be followed with an intent to sell. That is to say, the creation of a good or service will not always be saleable.

The intent to sell is to move beyond the concept of a single, valuable good or service and generate a 'product' equipped with identity, price, promotion, distribution and communication.

Intent to Buy
The consumer's journey to reach a purchase decision; at this stage, the paths of marketer and consumer have crossed at least once.

The intent to create only indirectly influences the intent to buy, since without creation, purchase is not possible. The intent to sell, however, must exist and be fully and wholly delivered to the consumer in order facilitate a purchase.

All aspects of the intent to sell mentioned above -- message, brand, value, etc. -- are channelled to the consumer as a complete and influential marketing effort. These many parts will create the consumer's intent to buy. And subsequently, with the intent to buy, the consumer officially assumes the role of marketer.

March 24, 2010
By Simren Deogun
No comment
in Best Practices, Thoughts

Removing ‘Can’t’ And ‘Won’t’ From Your Vocabulary

Negativity brings us down and takes us out. It paints a portrait of impossibility -- making what could be into what can't be.

As marketers, it is our responsibility to change what is now into what has never been. Meaning, it is about challenging yourself / your department / your cohorts into thinking differently. But the inherent caveat of thinking differently is fear. Fear that any novel, innovative idea you ponder will actually turn out to be unrealistic or too risky or too 'impossible'!

If you find yourself constantly saying that you can't or won't do something, then you might as well let them take your marketing license away! Guess what, you can't practice this specialty anymore.

Extending the possibilities and limiting and extinguishing the fear of risk and failure is the epitome of marketing well. Why? Because you refuse to be boxed in by the restrictions of the negative.

Equally as detrimental is thinking that your customers also can't or won't. How do you know? Have you tried? Are you basing this on your own previous experience or those of others? And does any of that really matter? Because, and here's the genius, your job as a marketer is to be as smart as possible to dictate what your customers can and will do.

Your voice, power and influence. Their voice, power and influence. Find the balance, take the risk, and forget the 'n'ts'.

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