Thursday, June 23, 2016

Advertising: For Better or Worse

"Good Seller" or " Bad Seller"?
I spend a lot of time watching and listening to all kinds of ads while consciously and subconsciously evaluating them. I watch them through a lens of trying to understand their motivation and their effectiveness; some on TV and radio, some on social networks and others in print and on billboards. Let’s face it there are a lot of ads everywhere you look. (it is estimated we receive up to 5,000 impressions a day). 

In thinking about this and I have come up with a theory that says basically this, there are basically two types of advertising,  advertising that is designed to promote a product that is “selling well” and advertising that is designed to promote product that is “not selling well,” or “certainly not as well as hoped.” We can debate why a product is selling well  (or not); if it is not selling well it may be a new unknown product, or a recently updated product , one with new or previously unknown benefits, a newly developed product and the list goes on. The reasons are varied and many. For a product or service that sells well, the advertiser is generally trying to leverage the existing goods sales and generate great sales, “striking while the iron is hot” (so to speak).

 One thing, I have found true more often than not, the more advertisers (and this is an important distinction between “advertising” and “advertisers”) promote a specific product the more likely it is that it may have limited value for you and generate great profit and margins for the advertiser.
The frequency and shear number of media channels used gets multiplied as advertisers try and climb on to the “gravy train.”  
 
Television Ad
Take for example, Canadian extended health care packages which are currently in heavy rotation in many media channels including television and online advertising. In this category we see a rush of companies and products, such as Flex care, Sure Health, Cover Me, Canada Protection Plan, and the list goes on. These are companies who employ a legion of actuarial accountants to recognize and capitalize on (gaps in healthcare no doubt) as an opportunity to generate profits. This product would fall under the category of a product that is “selling well” with companies climbing on board to take advantage of the opportunity. The opportunity is the result of an aging, fearful demographic that may not have planned well for retirement and a health care system that has gaps.  

Of course this does not apply to all products in all categories at all times, this is simply a guide to help you cast a critical eye towards ads and the products they promote to determine if these have value, using this theory.   

Direct Mail
Another, and a very different example aimed at a different demographic would be online stores such as Zoolilly, a completely online store that deals in clothing and home décor. They would fall into the “not selling well” category. The fact that they do not sell well is the  result of the fact that they are an unknown quantity.

An example of another “bad seller” might be an impulse buy product whether that is on TV or online. The seller creates a need for the product by fabricating a problem. The advertiser, through their commercials then proceeds to promote the multi-uses for their product in addressing the identified a problem and adds a few other uses just for good measure. It’s a “bad seller” because there was no market for this product prior to adverting. In most cases the manufacturer will try and have the product stocked on shelves at major department store chains. The claim, only available through this call-in commercial or online web site, immediately tells us that department store chains have decided this is not a product they think will sell or has real value for its customers.

I could offer many examples all distilled down to “good seller” or “bad seller” but I think I have made my point. It is important that as buyers, we critically evaluate advertising from a motivation point of view. Understanding a company’s motivation can help us understand the value proposition being offered by the seller. It is also important as potential advertisers that focus on the "real" value a product offers in our advertising to differentiate ourselves whether we are  advertising a good selling" product or  a "bad selling" product.

If you are a company trying to sell your products; then understanding your own motivation for creating a marketing message helps you develop more effective selling strategies and their corresponding messages. I believe that most customers can differentiate between good sellers and bad sellers and perceive value. This is especially important to small businesses who can not compete with  huge advertising budgets that "good sellers" can  often generate..


Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Online Content: Two Purposes - One Process

Content is always promoted as one the most important aspect of an online presence, either to create an immediate arms-length interaction or a more personal interaction. For some it simply represents their brand and a means of qualifying them … at least that’s what customers say. An example of a more personal interaction might be a new home real-estate web site, which is designed to provide only the barest minimum of details about the new homes (Why?) they want you to visit…they can only sell you a house when you visit the sales office.  On the other hand, companies that sell products online must provide a lot of detail about a product to help customers make immediate, impulse purchase decisions. In other cases, such as special services or commercial services, a business may want to provide significant content to qualify them as a capable provider, and this is designed to result in a more personal contact or online inquiry as well.

In a sound marketing strategy the goal of online content can have two very different purposes, depending on what type of business you operate.  One may be the need to satisfy an immediate demand and or a transaction and/or another may seek to initiate a more personal form of contact like a visit or a phone call.

Clearly, different types of businesses demand different content strategies for their web sites based on how they stream potential buyers into the sales funnel.  Not only does the type of business have an effect on content, the size of business has some relevance in the process as well.

Large businesses can afford to apply appropriate resources to updating and maintaining all levels of content regardless of the type of business they are in. Small business on the other hand is much less capable of assigning resources from an often over-worked staff to maintaining the online content. Small businesses are often caught up in the day to day process of managing the enterprise and are overwhelmed with hiring and firing, managing finance, sales, product development, and more. As a result, their most important marketing medium is left to languish from lack of resources. Large businesses can suffer from this same approach, but for different reasons, they may just be indifferent.

This may seem like a simple problem to solve, all it takes is more resources for small businesses and to focus on the problem, right? Wrong…more often than not the content needs a skilled hand in ensuring that the content reflects your business goals, is well worded, is optimized for Search Engines and is consistent with your marketing strategy.  Doing this on a consistent basis over time is a considerable investment  and must be carefully managed to take advantage of buying cycles, seasonal products, changes in the economy, competition, and changes in company  direction.

We don’t have the scope in this article to address all of the factors that can benefit your online presence as it relates to your specific business demands and sales funnel, but we can provide some simply rules for preparing content.


Research shows that visitors often scan pages looking for relevant content. As a result, how you say it can almost be as important as what you say.  Using a strategy that prizes scan-able text is essential to creating effective content. Here are a few simple rules for updating and changing online content regardless of the type or size of business you have.

  1. Try highlighting important words through bolding, increasing the font slightly or adding hypertext links to serve as one form of highlighting
  2. Insert meaningful headings and subheading by pulling titles and terms from the body copy. Try to make your headings simple and easy to understand.
  3. Use bullet lists from time to time but be judicious in their use. Too many will defeat their purpose. While consistency is good in bullet throughout the site, more than one list on a page can create a conflict in focus for a reader. If two bullet lists are required on a page, try and use different means of laying out that second list to create differentiation.
  4. Focus on one idea per segment or paragraph.
  5. Avoid compound sentences and industry jargon. Keep ideas short and easy to read.
  6. Don’t write in proposition style. This is where we create a need and then present the conclusion as a result of a need.  The conclusion often needs to go first to create impact and grab the “scanning” reader. 
  7. White space is the most valuable resource on a page; it helps readers focus their attention. Don’t waste it by adding too much content!
  8. Above the fold (a newspaper term) defines the most important area in any web site. It’s a bit of a moving target with today’s varying resolutions but suffice it to say long scrolling pages should be avoided and your most important content should be seeded at the top of the page. 
  9. Keep online content clear, use simple language. Even the most sophisticated reader will appreciate clarity and focus. Allow your content to be accessible. 
  10. Finally, don’t ignore accessibility guidelines in the design of your online presence or how you communicate with all of your customers.   As we are entering the “Baby Boomer “age, many of your aging customers may need to be accommodated in some manner. You don’t have to have a physical or mental disability to require accessibility accommodations.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

eLearning: SME’s & the Creative Process


Classroom training adds reoccurring commitment
of  time, effort & cost
Instructional design and creative direction are essential to the creation of intuitive eLearning; they help empower the learner to explore content and they create a desire to engage. This becomes a difficult process when most interactive content and Subject Matter Experts are born in the crucible of the ivory tower learning paradigm. The Subject Matter Expert (SME), or teacher and the creative development team represent two very different sensibilities when trying to create an intuitive learning environment.

For the SME, each topic is carefully detailed, researched and written down in a formalized text of some sort that can be agreed on and finalized, often by a peer committee review process. At least that’s the typical classroom style learning process we have grown up with. 

But this is changing as we go from classroom to virtually any place to learn online, without a teacher or instructor to guide us. Regardless of the source of the content the resulting “knowledge guide” used to develop eLearning is enshrined at some point in a traditional written form such as textbooks, subject matter expert content briefs, studies, instructions, guidelines and regulations. The content is often very specific, structured and unwavering in identifying the basic tenants of any topic to ensure that there is an agreed upon knowledge base.
The ability to deliver this carefully defined information in a meaningful way has largely depended on the environment and the person delivering the information. The “classroom teacher” often chooses what to accentuate, when to emphasize certain content and how to best illustrate key elements of content to reinforce comprehension of the basic principles of a concept. With the advent of eLearning, both the environment and the teacher involved in delivery of learning have been changed, embedded or even eliminated for the most part. As learning delivery methods have moved to an online environment, so too has the medium moved to a different kind of learning development process.  

The question now becomes who or what has replaced the “on the ground” teacher’s role in this new method of learning? How is the textbook knowledge being delineated in online learning and how are we guiding the learner? The surprising answer to these questions is that much of the responsibility for interpreting content through the interactive process has fallen to the eLearning instructional designer and the creative director. They now fulfill the role of interpreting the information to create a learning environment that allows for intuitive comprehension. The overall benefit in this change is that, no longer is the learner at mercy of the teacher’s choices. The learner now has an expanded role in interacting with the content to choose to explore knowledge that reflects individual interest within a topic.

In many ways this is a much more dynamic learning environment where learners can begin to explore the content in meaningful ways while still absorbing the basic principle designed into the learning programs content. The unfortunate pitfall in all of this, just as in the teacher enabled learning environment, the effectiveness of an online learning program is largely based on the skill of the interpreter, and in this case it is the interactive development team. Understanding adult learning, digital media production and interactive design are crucial if the Self-Paced eLearning or Blended learning is going to be successful.

In the eLearning development cycle, unlike within classroom learning, the development pipeline from concept to delivery is much shorter and the subject matter expert can exert much more influence on the content, or so it would seem. However, in reality the typical subject matter expert has only the knowledge of the 2D representation of the information, i.e., books, documentation, practical application etc., while online learning is now representing the content in a more 3D format which cannot be effectively managed and directed by the subject matter expert. They must rely on the skill and ability of the design team to creatively interpret the information in an interactive form that engages and creates comprehension. The more a subject matter expert tries to impose structure on the content the less intuitive, creative and engaging the content becomes, ultimately subordinating comprehension to structure and minimizing the learner’s ability to control the learning experience.

In thinking about this you may have noticed this process is not dissimilar to the video production cycle where there are many influencing factors and unknowns in the development process even though we have a clear understanding of what final product we would like to arrive at. Ultimately the production team including the instructional designer, writer, creative director, etc. must be trusted to influence the final production and achieve the aforementioned goals of the learning experience. Not surprisingly, like film and televisions production, subject matter experts can have a significant and positive influence on an eLearning production but not without great cost, time and effort.

In short if you want a great eLearning production and you want to manage time and cost effectively, you need to recognize your role in that process and make sure you have a great creative team that understands digital media production (often this kind of talent comes out of the television industry), adult learning and interactive design. A successful eLearning experience is less about a specific process that can be carefully managed, but more about an intuitive process that generates a creative understanding of the content that gives the learner the power to explore and the desire to engage.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Business Assessment: Hiring Ability Instead of Skills

Ycommunicate.com Inc. has recently launched an affordable Business Assessment process that helps small business realize growth potential, create a viable succession plan and improve productivity in a cost effective and shortened time frame.    
Small businesses, under the burden of growth and productivity have been struggling to maximize the value of their employees while harnessing the potential for company growth. This new process, developed by Ycommunicate.com Inc., in partnership with Titan Training is a game changer; it provides a tool set and a simple cost effective process for recognizing abilities in your existing workforce and new hires, while also recognizing opportunity gaps.  
The Business Assessment is ideal for organizations that wish to more effectively manage their growth potential through improved productivity. The process provides guidance and recommendations to streamline operations, improve business process efficiency, focus employee productivity and create clear transition strategies for growing or preparing the company for sale. The Business Assessment is a low cost, process designed specifically for small businesses and utilizes a standardized model for investigating the business’s unique culture, organizational structure and marketplace. This is complemented by a series of online management and employee skills and abilities assessments, surveys, interviews and a review of current and historical organizational performance.
 The Business Assessment identifies potential and gaps in skills and abilities within management teams, establishes benchmark qualifications and makes recommended changes to the organizational structure.  The Business Assessment also results in a detailed implementation plan that addresses business transition objectives in a shortened time-frame.
 While we utilize a unique tool set to reveal how individuals and teams work together and engage in the decision making process, the real value comes in the interpretation of results. The online tool set is complemented by a ground level investigation of the organization by undertaking a thorough review of structure and culture, growth history, hiring practices, skills and abilities, competitors, products & services, customer service strategies and short & long term goals. We then develop a sustainable transition plan to achieve goals by improving both individual and organizational performance.  

Friday, January 15, 2016

Misleading Advertising: The Subliminal Effect

We often see a variety of marketing terms on the packaging; in commercials, on billboards, in magazine ads or in the content of web pages. These terms are used as activators or modifiers, and are designed to reinforce the quality of a product and reinforce impulse buying without making any direct claims that need to be supported through quantitative or qualitative study results about the efficacy of the product. We see them so often and they are so pervasive that they act on us in a subliminal or suggestive way. The carefully chosen hypebole simply adds to the narrative about a product potentially creating a false impression for unsuspecting consumers. Here are just a few that I have observed in recent advertising.

Trusted, tested and recommended: who tested it? What were the results? Why is it trusted? Who recommended it? On almost every occasion there is no statistical evidence to support any such claims.  

Superior, premium, select, prime, choice: these words are adjectives that confer no special class or quality to a product or service, other than an unsubstantiated claim. These words are often used to “tell” a consumer about the quality because the quality is not apparent and often not present.

The letter ”Y”: adding the letter “Y” to some words modifies them to weaken their basis in fact. For example to say something is “cheesy” , buttery’, “fruity” or “meaty”, suggests that this product tastes like its more wholesome counterpart but may not fact have any of the original ingredient in it.

Flavour: here is another modifier. Add it to Cheesy, or fruity and you now know for sure that there are no original natural components in the product being flogged. These two words together in marketing lingo mean “like “. Cheesy flavour means packets of added flavours that can include just about anything except the product being “likened to.” 

“Gluten Free”: used as “come on” to appeal to someone trying to eat healthy. It feeds the myth that Gluten is the root of all evil in foods.

“All natural”: It masks the need for any data to support the claim. Stick the word “natural” on any product and you immediately have a healthy alternative without the need to offer any evidence of its healthy nature.
Green: the colour green has become an important packaging activator. It immediately confers environmental conscious qualities to a product without any need to substantiate the claim.  

“Lower ***** than our regular brand”: lower than what?  Often lower then there regular brand that was fatter than just about any product you could consume.

“Low Fat”: associated with healthy, nutritious options  but usually means higher in carbohydrates and salt

“Are you feeling tired, and are your muscles sore?” Aimed at seniors, who as a matter of course are tired and sore - because they are seniors! A come on deigned to hook you at the beginning of the commercial by getting you to say “Yes…I feel like that.”

“Do you want to leave something behind for your children?”  A “bean counter” exercise designed to take money from seniors, who they feel are too dull witted to realize that this is not a windfall – it will be paid for by each senior in full and generate very limited pay out.

“Car of the year!” Usually indirectly paid for by the manufacturer through magazine ads and special sponsorship. Manufactures tend to trade this honor to promote new or revitalized brands

“24/7 customer service”: usually web chat or FAQs represent the lion’s share of help and they often hide the phone number in the deepest bowls of the web site or paperwork to make it difficult to call in. Another way of avoiding actually talking to your customers because they have too many complaints about their product

“Product of Canada” or “Made in Canada”: Often just food manufactured in other countries and repackaged in warehouses in Canada. Most manufactures use the Canadian Competition Bureau’s test definition for these labels; as long as it meets the following it can use this label – “the last substantial transformation of the good occurred in Canada”  
“Botanicals, essential oils and extracts”: often only an extremely small amount by volume with few if any details on what botanicals… it all sounds healthy when mentioned in anti-aging products but no statistical evidence is provided….because none exists.


Free: there is no such thing as free …ever! All costs related to products are calculated into its sale regardless of claims. You may pay the true cost in other ways, shipping, or handling fees or through other business services attached to a product, annual fees, licensing, etc.