Opportunity Knocking

Death, Image and the King of Pop

Now that Michael Jackson is gone, two questions come to mind:

1. Do you love him or hate him?

2. Why do you feel so strongly one way or the other?

I think we love him because we have followed him from the beginning. It started back when he was the loveable face of the Jackson 5, and continued to grow as his innovative music and dance moves compelled the world - culminating in his Thriller album.

Over the last few decades though, Jackson’s appeal has taken a serious nosedive. Controversy has surrounded him for years in regards to his ever-changing physical appearance and surgery stories, multiple charges of child abuse, crazy lifestyle and lack of a notable album.  He had become more of the butt of jokes rather than a revered pop star.

While this changed many people’s opinions of Jackson, no one can deny his King of Pop status. His 13 No.1 hits on Billboard magazine’s weekly pop singles charts rank him fourth most all-time, while Thriller is the world's best-selling album of all time ( 100+ million copies sold).

The outpouring of support since his death got me wondering if in death people who had previously abandoned him have now decided to forgive and focus on his younger image and the imprint he left on pop music.

Do you think Michael is receiving public forgiveness because of his death? When is death good for someone’s image?

Coming Together Online For the Greater Good

It is amazing to see all the different sites online that pool people with the same interests together to perform tasks for little or no money.  These are sites where these internet junkies can submit content that others can either use, vote on or talk about freely.  Seems like the new wave - a business and cultural revolution if you ask me.  What do you think?  Below are a few examples of what I'm talking about.  Any great sites that fit this category you are using?

www.threadless.com- Submit a design, get rated by the community, win prizes!

www.istockphoto.com- Amateur photog? submit and be famous! (well, maybe.)

www.goteamsgo.com - love your team? hate your team? talk trash with the best and win $0!

www.innocentive.com- Intellectual? nowhere to showcase your huge cranium? Solve problems and win some money from businesses at the same time.

 Photo Courtesy: www.threadless.com

Rebranding of a Champion

Today you can find Lakers star Kobe Bryant everywhere.  Conan O’Brien, Nike and ESPN are all hailing him and his fourth NBA championship.  The spotlight isn’t anything new for Kobe.  The only difference is that now Kobe's face is on a Wheaties Box instead of the police blotter. The events of July 2003 in Eagle, CO robbed the NBA of its MJ (Michael Jordan) heir apparent, and cost Kobe millions in endorsements deals that suddenly were extinct, including lucrative deals with McDonald’s, Spalding and Coca-Cola. His No.8 Lakers jersey, the NBA’s top seller before his arrest, plummeted out of the top 50 in sales. Whether he was actually guilty of the charges or the front office meddling afterwards is immaterial - association with these types of allegations can be career ending to someone who makes their money in the public eye.

Now, amazingly, he has not only returned to championship glory, but he has returned to the mainstream and has once again become a role model to kids across the nation. His high profile campaigns with Vitamin Water and Nike’s attention grabbing Most Valuable Puppets campaign show you how much Bryant’s image has changed in just six years.  

Kobe accepted that he would never have the universal MJ appeal after what happened. So instead of worrying about being the game’s brightest star in the media – he gradually built himself back up through a complete rebranding of his image, including a change of numbers from No.8 to No.24 – he has shown the world he can still shine on the court. Of course, having LeBron James as the NBA’s new poster boy has helped, but Kobe has rebounded by rebranding himself as Mr. Performance. You may not like him as a person, but his will to win makes you respect him as a player.  

This effort has paid off in a big way. Kobe’s No.24 jersey is now the NBA’s top jersey sold in the world.  He is a video game cover athlete again and Nike has re-launched the Kobe Zoom shoe brand, products largely marketed to adolescents. Kobe was the 5th highest paid pro athlete endorser in the US in 2008, a fact that would have been thought impossible six years ago and would never have been possible without the rebranding of his image.

Is Twitter a Useful Outlet for Marketing?

 

The mircroblogging service, Twitter, has gotten so much Media Coverage in the last few months that it has quite frankly become nauseating just to hear the word. Well, that word, along with “tweet”, “fail whale”, “twittering”, “RT” and “DM.” (If you don’t know the meaning of any of those consider yourself uninformed.

As far as the service goes, I personally think it has proven to be beneficial from a marketing perspective.  Does every company need to hire someone full time to tweet like Pizza Hut or Sky Mall – absolutely not.  But does it make sense to survey the landscape for your company and decide just how beneficial it can be for you and how much time you should spend using the service – YES.

As Twitter continues to grow (currently 32 million users) it is forming a niche as one of the largest platforms on the Web to share real-time information.  It has also proven to be a place where companies can build their brand, send information, empower brand lovers, and create user communities, among other things.

If you are still skeptical, give this cover article from TIME writer Steven Johnson a read.  That’s right – the TIME cover! Maybe the title is an indication of where Twitter is headed – maybe not.  But, if you’re not using it at all, or have no idea about the keywords mentioned above - tell me why you aren’t in 140 characters or less.

Sales Goals and the Death of the Shotgun Approach

The average shelf life of a sales manager is 15 months.

Nearly 4 out of 10 salespeople will lose their jobs this year.

An average of 27% of salespeople do not produce enough even to cover their loaded employment costs.

The bottom line is that salespeople must establish mutually agreed upon sales goals with management, communicate success, and be brutally honest about market push back.

Most companies close only about 15% of their sales deals. That means that sales people spend 85% of their time to no avail. What can they do?

The days of shotgun approaches working massive lists of prospects are over. It’s now more about analyzing past deals and the behaviors, communication quality, negotiations, philosophies, etc.

What works for you?

Are you there John Wall? It's me, your Public Image.

It was leaked on Monday that high school basketball phenom John Wall was charged with breaking and entering on April 27 at an unoccupied home in Raleigh, N.C.  While there was no indication of forced entry or that anything was stolen from the house - this was an epic PR fail for the Wall camp.

Wall, 18, is a 6-foot-4 senior point guard from Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh with skills that have people already likening him to Chris Pauland Isiah Thomas. 

All indications currently point to this not affecting his standing with the colleges that are currently vying for his basketball services (Duke, N.C. State, Baylor and Kansas seem to be the front runners). They don't care if his character is questionable or not - and maybe it isn't - they just want to win.

His character isn't my issue with the situation - my issue is with the people that are surrounding him.  Although he can't legally have a "PR team" right now - he has plenty of people tending to him and making sure he can get the most money out of his talent when he goes to the NBA in a year. 

How can this group of people not stress to John the importance of being a model citizen for the next year?  Not only is he now being questioned by the media, but the public is skeptical of him as well.  His seemingly easy road to riches in the NBA has just gotten extremely bumpy because he decided to act like a "regular" high school kid and do something dumb.  When you are the top high school basketball prospect in the nation, and in the public eye, you can't afford to do something dumb like a "regular" high school kid.  John has already failed to step up and apologize and that is mistake No.2.  Let's just say John and his camp are going to need to right the ship SOON.

What do you think about John Wall?  Should the public chastise him for his actions?  Should he apologize? What are some other current PR snafus in sports?

A new twist on an old approach

Thanks to all the great minds at the 919 office, we recently were able to put together an innovative new sports marketing program based around the ever-growing popularity of NASCAR.  State Water Heaters was looking for ways to reduce its total NASCAR spending, and add to their current Nationwide Series sponsorship, by maintaining ties to the sport on and off the track. We thought that hooking them back up with old friend (and Daytona 500 winner) Ward Burton would be just the ticket.

Before you put in your two cents (and those are always appreciated) - I'll stop right here and let you read what other people are saying first...

1. Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal 

Firm tires sponsorship alternative

2. SceneDaily.com

State Water Heaters alters approach to stay in NASCAR

3. The Dallas Morning News

NASCAR drivers easily tracked with social networking

You Tube adds another Social Networking layer

Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch posted a great article today about YouTube’s plans for a new real-time product that adds a much needed social layer to the popular site.

It basically boils down to allowing your friends on the site to see what you’re watching without having to use an outside program like Twitter. 

Although the product is only in Beta stage and could benefit from a better layout – YouTube is headed in the right direction. 

What people want are social networking sites that can do it all -we don’t want to have Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Digg all open at once to satisfy our online needs.  I love to see that the current social networking giants are continuing to make improvements so they won’t soon fall behind the pack.

What do you think about this new product?  Is YouTube heading in the right direction? Or do you like to use a plethora of sites and just organize them via a feed aggregator like FriendFeed?

Photo Credit: Tech Cruch

A Quick e-mail Marketing Tip

I just received an awful piece of e-mail marketing and it reminded that the most common mistake made by green and seasoned marketers alike is fuzzy messaging.  Often we are so entrenched in our own businesses and corporate cultures that we forget to think like a customer or prospect – we lack objectivity.  Before any email campaign is launched, there must be a clear and expressly identified goal in mind.  Ask yourself, “What do I want the recipient to do after getting this?”  If the answer is not blatantly obvious after three seconds of looking at the email, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.  Don’t make the reader guess at what you’re offering and above all, steer clear of jargon and lengthy descriptions of features and benefits – stick to identifying “what’s in it for me?”

Web site Content is STILL King

When it comes to Web sites, whether consumer or business, the design is the suit you wear, the content is what you say and how you say it.

 

In other words content trumps design all day long – but a nice looking person with a sharp suit,  disarming personality and a perceived understanding of my personal and professional issues wins hands down.

 

Solid market research to determine key messages and the Web site copywriter are where the gold is hidden. 

 

Is your website content updated and talking the right language?